Miley Cyrus breaks silence about VMAs performance

MTV News posted an exclusive clip today, provided by a crew filming a previously announced documentary, in which Miley Cyrus addresses for the first time the reaction to her much-buzzed-about performance on last week’s VMAs. Miley Cyrus’ performance of “We Can’t Stop” had a lot of people talking throughout most of the week, discussing everything from “twerking” to the notion of white performers co-opting black culture to the usual cries of pop music being the end of civilization to just plain astonishment and everything in between.

“I don’t pay attention to the negative,” Cyrus says in what appears to be her first post-VMAs interview. “Me and Robin [Thicke,] the whole time said, you know we’re about to make history right now.”

It’s clear from her comments that Cyrus set out to — and achieved — one goal: to get people talking.

“Madonna’s done it,” she tells the interviewers. “Britney’s done it. Every VMA performance, that’s what you’re looking for; you’re wanting to make history.”

Whether Miley Cyrus’ performance will be remembered decades from now, along the lines of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” only time will tell. But for the present it’s caused a lot of discussion, and even though Cyrus says she set out to “make history,” somehow she’s also surprised that people are talking about the performance.

“What’s amazing,” she says in the interview, “is I think now, we’re three days later and people are still talking about it. They’re overthinking it. You’re thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. Like, I didn’t even think about it ’cause that’s just me.”

And with news last week that Miley Cyrus’ upcoming album, Bangerz, jumped to No. 5 on the iTunes album list following that VMAs performance, it’s probably little wonder that she’s not dwelling on what any of the pundits or detractors might be saying.

“I don’t pay attention to the negative because I’ve seen this play out so many times,” the 20-year-old Cyrus says in the interview. “How many times have we seen this play out in pop music?”

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Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus at 2013 MTV VMAs — Credit Getty/MTV