Do we like Miley Cyrus?
Our score: 8 out of 10. She has backed LGBTQ+ youth and climate action in her own words and money for years, and the only blots are song-copying disputes.
Miley grew up in front of the cameras. She became a global name as the lead in Disney Channel's Hannah Montana from 2006, then spent the next two decades spent shedding the tween-queen image. In March 2026 she went back to the role for a 20th anniversary special on Disney+.
Her main legal drama is over a song. In 2018 Jamaican artist Michael May, who performs as Flourgon, sued over We Can't Stop and sought $300 million. He claimed it borrowed heavily from his 1988 track We Run Things. It ended in a settlement in late 2019, with the money undisclosed and the case closed for good.
A second song fight is still going. Tempo Music Investments, which holds a share of the rights to Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man, sued in 2024. It alleged that Flowers copied the older song, and her lawyers denied it. In March 2025 a judge rejected her bid to have the case thrown out on standing grounds, so it was headed for trial. That's the latest we found.
On the harm check, she comes up clean. In 2015 she launched the Happy Hippie Foundation to help homeless and LGBTQ+ young people, with trans musician Laura Jane Grace among those involved. At a 2019 festival in Denmark she gave an expletive-heavy speech urging young people to act on climate and the oceans, and said her gay friends felt unsafe on the street. We found no anti-vax talk, no grievance grifting and no questionable company.
The recent run is a comeback story. She got her Hollywood Walk of Fame star on 22 May 2026. Then she dropped the Bass Persuades era in September, with two Hollywood Bowl shows on 16 and 18 October.
The good stuff is more than trophies. The foundation's pitch was funding digital support groups so LGBTQ+ kids wouldn't be rejected and pushed out of home. At the launch she said she was “fighting for people I don't know.” You can argue about how much a pop star's charity changes, but this one was aimed squarely at the people who need it.