Let Pop Divas Be Unrelatable

2025 is shaping up to be Miley Cyrus’ year, with the epic trailer released for her upcoming album, Something Beautiful, released today. The beautiful Glen Luchford-shot cover also had our Slack instantly gooped and gagged, but something else caught our eye: All the messaging on her social media is written in the third person. For example, the album’s Instagram announcement had the following caption: “Miley Cyrus unveils the artwork for her highly anticipated ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, set for release on May 30, 2025, via Columbia Records.” Miley is so removed from her socials, it’s like edicts coming from on high. For anyone else, this may read as pretentious, but I’m personally here for the removed glamour of this new era. Let our pop stars be divas.

Besides the omnipotent messaging, the fashion pulls she’s executed so far with the help of her stylist Bradley Kenneth are not the denim shorts & T-shirts other pop stars are wearing. In the caption for the trailer, it’s revealed that “Something Beautiful will showcase Miley in a striking visual narrative, featuring archival Thierry Mugler couture, Jean Paul Gaultier, custom Alexander McQueen, and Alaïa.” Indeed, this isn’t your average singer’s wardrobe: On her album cover, Miley is wearing Mugler couture from 1997, and she famously popped out at the Grammys in custom Alaïa, a flex few can say. In an era when vulnerability is celebrated and parasocial relationships with stars is the norm, I’m quite happy to sit back and let pop divas commit themselves to unadulterated capital-G glamour. I’m pleased to know stars like Charli XCX are as uncomfortable as me at parties, but I also live for the complete fantasy of Miley’s universe — or in her words in the album trailer, “fueled by fantasy” — uninterrupted by the world around her.

While us normal folks toil away at our 9-to-5s, Dua Lipa is taking yet another country by storm, Miley is filming in one-of-one fashion, and Beyoncé is somewhere locked away in a multimillion-dollar mansion. Sometimes, it’s in the service of aspiration and inspiration instead of relation that pop’s brightest stars really shine. At the end of the day, I don’t mind Miley’s removed third-person aura because I cherish that she’s even sharing with us at all. She’s earned the right to be mysterious, flex in custom ‘fits, and drop in and out when she sees fit, because she’s put in the legwork. It also doesn’t hurt that her aesthetic eye is finely trained: When the vision is that good, the work can do the talking, and not the star.