Miley Cyrus says “no shade” to Dua Lipa, but ‘Prisoner’ wasn’t “cohesive” with ‘Plastic Hearts’ album

Miley Cyrus has revealed she didn’t plan on collaborating with Dua Lipa on her 2020 record ‘Plastic Hearts’.

During a recent appearance on the Every Single Album podcast, Cyrus was asked “why the fuck” Lipa ended up on the album, leading the ‘Flowers’ singer to reply that it wasn’t her idea.

“Okay well that wasn’t my idea,” she said. “No shade to Dua Lipa, it just isn’t cohesive with the album. She would’ve been much better on ‘Endless Summer Vacation’, like she would’ve been great on ‘Wildcard’ or ‘River’ – could you imagine?”

She added that Dua’s presence on the track was “medicinal,” explaining that her team was trying to “salvage a sinking career” because they weren’t happy with the direction of the record.

“They were like, ‘Uh-oh, this was not what we had in mind to un-sink this ship,'” Miley jokes. “They were like, ‘Oh great, here’s this, like, pile of shit album she gave us, let’s spray some Dua Lipa [on it], that’ll make it better.'”

The two have not worked together since that collaboration, which later appeared on the re-released version of Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia‘ in 2021. More recently, fans have taken note of rumoured tensions between the two artists following the release of Cyrus’ newest album, ‘Something Beautiful’.

Some listeners are convinced Cyrus is making a dig at Lipa on new track ‘Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved’, in which the ‘The Climb’ singer describes a woman who: “Speaks the perfect French/ She can dance the night away/ And still, she’ll never break a sweat.”

Social media users have been quick to point out the ‘Training Season’ singer appears to tick all three boxes – with the last open to some interpretation – given Lipa was famously heard speaking French on Charli XCX’s recent ‘Talk Talk’ remix with Troye Sivan.

Likewise, many have taken the next line as the biggest confirmation the song is a jab at Lipa, who released ‘Dance the Night‘ in 2023 as part of the Barbie soundtrack. The reference to never breaking a sweat however, is a little less clear.

Many on social media believe it to be a throwback to the period Lipa’s dance moves were roundly criticised, resulting in the viral “go girl, give us nothing” meme. Speaking to The Guardian last year, Lipa called the moment “hurtful” and “humiliating”.

THE DUA LIPA SHADE???????????? pic.twitter.com/CTf4oIqfhn

— bau (@f0lkfever) May 30, 2025

“When people took that snippet of me dancing online and just turned it into a meme, and then when I won the best new artist Grammy and people were like, ‘She’s not deserving of it, she’s got no stage presence, she’s not going to stick around.’ Those things were hurtful. It was humiliating.”

As for Cyrus’ latest offering, in NME’s four-star review of the record, Nick Levine wrote: “Featuring 13 tracks that unfurl over 53 minutes, ‘Something Beautiful’ is sprawling and apparently unperturbed by contemporary chart trends.

“It’s difficult to think of a Spotify playlist that might accommodate ‘Reborn’, which sounds a bit like an Andrew Lloyd Webber show tune written on mild hallucinogens. So while ‘Something Beautiful’ probably isn’t Cyrus’s most hit-packed album, it does feel like a fully realised artistic statement. This post-genre pop star has pulled off another pretty big swing.”

At a recent screening of the Something Beautiful film that accompanies the album, Cyrus was heckled by fans who were expecting a concert, with social media clips showing one proclaiming: “We thought this was a concert! We paid $800!”

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