No the mickymouse tee was her childhood working for Disney, the red dress was post Disney Miley, the crazy one you all remember. She’s wearing both her past phases.

Can we get an applause for these editors?

All I can say is that this person has always been so authentic in expressing herself.

Never expected such a wholesome and (actually) introspective song from someone so notoriously mainstream. May God bless Miley and help her to continue growing and healing from her mistakes.

My heart has always had a soft spot for people like Miley. People who were thrust into fame and the public spotlight by their parents as children. To be raised by a morally bankrupt, overwhelming, vain, demoralizing community pursuing nothing but self gratification. To be preyed upon and publicly scrutinized through the entirety of your formative years and come out alive with any form of sanity takes a lot more guts and humility than the majority of the people who criticize her.

Michael’s takes are always a breath of fresh air. He’s so levelheaded, objective and attentive

She sampled this over 'The Climb'. Also watch very closely when the spotlight comes on, look behind her its the same place she filmed the 'Wrecking Ball' video. She was also singing this while looking at her mother through the camera monitor via livestream to convey authentic and true emotions. 4 more fun facts, she recorded it on August 25, which is 1. The day she filmed the Wrecking Ball music video in 2010, 2. The day the headlines of her and Liams breakup was published in 2010, 3.The day of her infamous We Cant Stop x Blurred Lines MTV performance with Robin Thicke with the infamous foam finger in 2010, & last but not least 4. Her father Billy Ray Cyrus's birthday. So much symbolism that makes this song so powerful.

As a 37yr old man, I find it kinda strange that I relate to this song 😂 I guess I’m on TeamMiley now. 2024 just keeps surprising me…..

Knowles always delivering with the best content. Props to the editors too. That light dimming alongside the song killed me.

Not a Miley fan but as a human happy for her to be able to grow with a message of hope in these strange times.

I really enjoyed the part where Knowles mentions Aristoteles' 4 phases of virtue and also shows great characters from LoTR and Harry Potter to exemplify each group.

I love this song SO MUCH. It is so much more powerful than people think.

Honestly, I think that this new age of Miley is going to be huge for her, and she has a chance to really influence people in a more positive direction

I’m an addict. I’ve been clean awhile now. I used to feel regret about things I’ve done or said. But today I realize that I would not be me if I hadn’t lived the life I did. So today I can tell you that I’m not proud of those things but I don’t regret them because they made me who I am today and I like the me that I’ve become.

She was judged very harshly in the media for things she did on stage and things she said! ❤ I love Miley Cyrus for toughing it out❤

The song is beautiful and I love your interpretation, Michael. You can read through the subtleties in lines. You’re great at interpreting arts though a conservative lens without wrecking it with a hammer, what Ben does all the time. My goodness, he cannot read art at all. You are a gem.

I would never have gotten to this without hearing it here. I would not have viewed Miley Cyrus according to her 'young' persona. Thank you for bringing it. She has regrets no doubt. Wouldn't it have been good to have parents that would have guided her instead of touring with and promoting her bad choices.....but we as parents are never perfect in our orchestration of love. I'll be praying for her.

I explained to my kids this video a bit. Not sure she's ready to fully change, but admitted I did a lot of sin in the past and it was "fun." There's no doubt that getting into some trouble, going out getting blackout drunk with friends, even the sexual escapades were fun. But in the end they actually destroyed me little by little all the way... and in many ways I'm glad for those experiences and in many ways I highly regret them for what they did to me and to others.

This song sums up so much..she has such a talent for doing that ..she has been around the block and knows now that she can hold her ground..i have always loved her .. and i am almost 73. She appeals to her age group and us old hippies alike ...

love her song "flowers".

I love that Michael is so level headed and intuitive when it comes to reviewing all this music.

Worth mentioning though, that being young does not necessarily entail being rebellious and wild. Wrecking part of your life (because contrary to what people say, time does not always heal all wounds) is not some inevitable force of nature. Kids need to be taught they don't have to learn everything the hard way, they can learn enough before even becoming an adult to avoid the vast majority of mistakes their peers are going to make.

I think the Mickey shirt represents how she worked for Disney when she was young

I always loved this girl and I have been beating for her for so long. I really think her tears were absolutely real... girl just made me cry. Miley has been through so much and really hope and pray she is healing and come back to God

I used to be young too and made a lot of bad of poor decisions and have myself accountable for all. I hope she's sincere. It's a nice song.

Part of young adulthood is figuring out who you are, being free for the first time, having fun, and making mistakes. What sucks is when you finally grow out of it and grow up, but you're still pigeonholed as who you were for the rest of your life.

She even filmed this is the same studio where she filmed Wrecking Ball. She has come full circle.

I love the whole album. I especially love this song. I used to be young. It spoke to me that no other song has because I am survivor of my own crazy choices I made in my youth.

Whoever edited this and put dumbledoor as the virtuous example after all the other LoTR characters just wanted to trigger Tolkien fans and it 100% worked

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." ". If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent." The crazy times of our youth are sacrificial to try to get rid our sins, but we eventually realize we were just playing the prodigal son.

Great content as always. In case you didn't know, when Miley "went through her wild stage" it was on purpose, it says in the documentary that it was to get out of her Disney contract/control. They were making a bunchhhh of money off of her and she wasn't getting hardly any, so the wild stage was to make her unmarketable and too explicit for Disney to be able to use her, then she started making her millions on her own terms. Also she was going through her wild stage but that was the original intent on what she was putting out.

She filmed this on the set of Wrecking Ball and if you listen to the music, it's her song "The Climb" and she filmed this looking directly at her mom in the teleprompter which is why the lip sync is off and has the tears for the emotional effect (she intentionally did this because she is embarrassed and has regrets, not to be fake). She also acknowledges she wrecked many relationships/decisions (which is the reason she chose the Wrecking Ball set). Still LOVE "Flowers" and I think this song was the beginning of her waking up.

I grew up in LA during the 90's and one thing I catch on to real quick was how all child stars are never allowed to be kids and have a normal life and they always go through a crazy, drug filled life after. It really broke my heart as a kid to see and everybody was just ok with it.

The editors man! Top tier editing 👏🏻 and I love Michael’s analysis of her songs and this is such a sad song. Miley is pretty real in here songs

Love Miley. Great take, wonderful editing. Thank you.

Omg!!!😂 I’m dying!! I love the finale!!! It caught me so off guard! 😂😂😂 “ I came in like a wrecking ball “ 😂😂😂

Miley has matured, she is wiser. She is brilliantly bringing her on stories into lyrics. To tell a story that we can connect to snd feel. Her syiry is believable whether you were wild or new someone, but they cane out the other side of it embrassing a time when they were young . A singer sings a story, the job of a singer is to connect to the audience The delivery of the song is key. Miley nailed it.

This song just brought tears to my eyes when I heard it. I relate so much to it...I'm 46 and people still don't understand why I changed. WELL..I'm not 16 anymore...I'm not 19 anymore.... You mature and grow out of phases. I was young. I was raped when I was young....I didn't know better. That's not an 'excuse',it's a lesson. And,if you take something that you're supposed to learn from and say it's an 'excuse ' or 'no excuse' ,you've never had to explain your actions to anyone. And we shouldn't have to. I get this... I used to be young ,as well... I grew up,matured and learned. That's what Life is....Learning.

Didn't know what I was going to get in this video and now I want a series of this... well done!

I grew up with Miley as she's only about a year older than me. I went through the same phases as her at the same time with being "wild" and now maturing a bit. Although I wasn't as wild as her (and my phase was shorter lived) nor was it in the public eye. I just turned 30 and as I enter this new chapter I feel the same as her with this song. I think it will resonate with a lot of people, especially around her age. I really have grown a liking to her and her music the last few years. I'm happy she is healing and growing. I am curious to see how her career continues.

Don’t know how this woman made it in the music business. But youth can bring really bad choices. I give her credit for her attempt to leave many of the offenses of youth behind.. We’ll see as time goes on.

I love Miley Cyrus. She is ridiculously talented. I know she had a few years of shock-jock entertainment but I don't begrudge her those. She grew up in front of the world. I can't imagine cameras following me in my teens and twenties. Yikes.

I’m a 33 year old bloke from England and this song got me good. And then this video popped up and I’m so glad I clicked on it. Absolutely outstanding fella 👏🏻👏🏻

This song is a perfect song for me, and Michael got it down 100%. Yes, it was fun, and you remember it, so you remember the hurt and pain it caused. Damn this song is so perfect for people who used to be crazy and wild and fun. Now they've chilled, calmed down, because they used to be young. And now she's growing. I am sure glad that her crazy youth didn't kill her. And I hope she keeps none or few regrets. I hope she remembers that who she is came from who she was ❤ much love Miley ❤️

I'm happy to see that Miley has grown.... I truly hope she finds a different season of life. My daughter loved her as Hannah Montana and she grew up with her music, sometimes to my dismay, but I am going to send this video to her. She is expecting presently with my first grandchild, and I believe she will see the wisdom of your take Mr. Knowles. It's encouraging to see this generations eyes start to open to the truth of maturing and realizing that the fun of sin is for a season and if you don't grow it only leads to your destruction. My prayers for this generation will continue, they are fighting battles I'm glad I didn't have to face at their age.

The last verse and her smiles both express and show no repentance. She is not showing regret there. She does not totally call them mistakes she calls them fun and smiles at the great memories, rather than sorrows at the foolish blunders. It is excuse making…being young justifies lack of wisdom, restraint and full self indulgence. Not a song I want the teens in my life taking in.

Michaels face getting darker when the lights faded in the video is so funny 😂

I hope that Miley is learning. Not sure if she regrets the bad decisions she made or if she's just sad that she's too old for that anymore. It's hard letting go of childish things and getting older. She's also sort of excusing the dumb stuff she did because she was young, but yet not quite. Either way this is a big step forward for Miley and is a powerful song. A great example for the younger generation, who don't want to grow up, at the very least. So proud of her.

She's a true artist. I'm glad she's stopped wasting her talent on trash. She's an amazing composer, uses so much symbolism in her songs and outfits for performance, not to mention her talent to sing a capella. SO beautiful, glad to have her back. I adored Hannah Montana and Miley's music as a kiddo! ❤

Agree that she is referencing her learning from the past not reveling in the mistakes.

Oddly, her tears triggered mine. She clearly does have regrets, and sadness about things she did or said that she now wishes she could take back, but that's not how life works. There are no 'do-overs'. You just have to suck it up and forge ahead, hopefully doing better going forward. I am too empathetic to lyrics, and many songs bring me to tears. This is one of them

I'm a 45 year old man and can relate to this song. I'm thinking she is still very young at 31 but I do recall the 30's as a stepping stone into a changing mindset on life and mortality.

Reality is finally teaching Miley a lesson. Her professional & personal life took a hit. I know young artists sometimes take a dark turn, but she was over the top with her performances, and she threw a wrench into a stalling career that could have been more rewarding, but a lesson learned.

I love that song!

I always liked her song The Climb as well. Very inspiring song.❤

The edits get some serious credit!😂😂. Insightful from the costume analysis to Aristotle. Just Delightful, Michael!

I never laughed so hard during a reaction to a "supposed to be sad song" 😂😂 from Micheals clip of his old acting (wtf was that?!😅) to Micheals face being on Miley, to using The Lord of the Rings to explain different peoples characteristics 😂😂 🤣Way to go Editors!

Love your dark academia study style set! 👌

I cry a little watching this. Every time I watch it. I loved this analysis. Very close match to the way I interpreted it all.

I can't relate to this song of hers firsthand, but I appreciate the beautiful message so much. What a deep and moving song.

Being young isn't a free ticket to be a sexual deviant and salacious.

She must have waited for Steamboat Willy to enter public domain before releasing this song

3:32 I had to keep going back to repeat what you said because I was laughing too hard 😂

The editors are top notch. That last edit made me and my kids cackle.

Michael, i really love ur set. Very 18/19 century vibe and the editing is hilarious 😂🔥

This was the best introspective critique on this song ever! Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

I like you even more now. Its a reminder how complex the breadth of the experience we play from. The thing that makes us real, unique and a friend. I too have a genuine affection and appreciation for Miley. Proud of her. Love her talent and herself. Thank you! Miley, "its good stuff". And im a fan too. ❤ from Montgomery Illinois

I never needed to be a crazy moron who didn't care about the consequences and how it affected others when I was young. I grew up with people around me like that. Many, many of them are dead and, sadly, some took innocent lives with them. However, there is an abundance of older people who still act like selfishness morons in our world. Lost souls who refuse to turn to the Light.

What I love about art is that Michael can read into the Mickey Mouse shirt entirely wrong but hey - it's art

I ❤❤❤ this song….she’s growing up! I too have always had a soft spot for her….she’s a victim of her own circumstance…..but she’s hug on long enough to grow up and She’s Back! This truly is a beautiful song! Way to go Miley!

I think it also speaks on it never being too late to make better choices. For me at least, there were times I thought "ive already caused so much damage, so what's the point of trying to change?" But that is far from the truth. And i promise its so worth it. You reap what you sow, but you can rip those old plants out and start a new garden. ❤

She's one of my favorite singers. The tone of her voice is just so beautiful. I love this song.

It's great to wish the best for people and hope they've changed, but I've seen the effect she's had and still has on a generation of fans. She helped build this toxic culture.

I enjoyed every minute of this clip the closing literally made me shout out laughing!!😂😂❤

Ha ha the light switch edit ha ha lol. Pure genius

Turning nineteen today. Theres already a lot of things I have done that i regret. Ill just keep moving

Miley Cyrus followed this track's release with an explanation, "This song is about honoring who we've been, loving who we are and celebrating who we will become. I feel proud when reflecting on my past and optimistic when thinking about the future." She also added, "I am grateful to my loyal fans who make my dreams a reality daily. I am sincerely thankful for the stability of your steadfast support. This song is for you." Doesn’t sound like remorse to me. She’s wearing the shirt because she was a Disney star and she’s wearing the dress because she became a “sex symbol”. This is not a song about regret at all but remembering the past and being proud of it. This song is about as deep as a puddle. This song comes across as a way of excusing herself rather than having true remorse for her sins. This analysis seems supported by the statement made by Miley herself quoted above. Edit to make it easier for people to see my reply as it further elaborates where I am coming from. “She says about “honouring who we’ve been” if this song is about regret and growing past it there is no way you can “honour” your past evil behaviour. She is owning her past behaviour in a worldly way. “Oh I did evil but you know I used to be young no point in regretting” as if remorse and regret are something that hold you back but if the remorse is true it does quite the opposite. It should fortify your conviction to turn more and more away from sin and to God. We own our pasts by regret that is fruitful in good actions not a false kind of regret where we either despair or simply say indifferently “oh well I was young”. My point is she doesn’t express regret in this song or her explanation of her song. Maybe she does have regrets deep down but her explanation of her song rather celebrates her life without distinction. If she wanted to show that she has changed for the better and has regret then it should have been better expressed in this song but clearly We should never celebrate our sins. Again in another interview in reference to her song she blames others for her behaviour: “Speaking to British Vogue, Miley said: "I’m actually not an attention-seeking person, sitting here as a 30-year-old grown woman. I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character I had played. Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. ‘I’m not my parents.’ ‘I am who I am.’" Discussing the backlash, Miley said: "I carried some guilt and shame around myself for years because of how much controversy and upset I really caused. Now that I’m an adult, I realise how harshly I was judged." Calling out her critics, Miley ended by saying: "I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realise that I would never harshly judge a child." I was judged harshly as a child? I’m sorry but most people do stupid things when they are young. I’m not denying that or saying any one is better than anyone else but if you are truly sorry for your acts you don’t go around complaining about how “harshly you were judged by adults” when let’s be real she may have been young but it’s a gross exaggeration to say she was a “child”. She needs prayer to have a true supernatural repentance for her past. I don’t know her interior intentions but based on her own words it seems she sadly is lacking this true supernatural sorrow. Think of someone like Saint Mary Magdalen she didn’t complain about how she was judged by others. She trusted in God and repented of her sins. She didn’t complain about how others thought of her. She cared only about making amends. That is true repentance. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, we sorrow over what we have done but we turn that sorrow into something good, by God’s grace we overcome the past by repentance. Maybe she is just failing to express this but Our Lord did say “you will know them by their fruits”. I can say her outward actions and words do not express repentance, regret maybe but I can only hope and pray that interiorly there is true repentance and that will manifest it’s self with true repentance by a public rejection of her past actions and trying to do everything to make amends for it. That’s all I’m saying, I’m not trying to rashly judge her. She needs prayers. I just think Michael’s analysis of this song is totally off!”

That editing is crazy🎉🎉🎉🎉

Lol the LOTR edit at the end. Classic.

It's a song that is nostalgic for the younger days, while acknowledging you're no longer that person, and then recognizing you had fun and learned from those younger days, but you would make the same decisions if you could go back because they made you who you are. I often wish I had known something at a time when I made a particular decision, but if I had, I wouldn't be where I am now, and probably not nearly as God centered as I am. And my daughter might not be where she is.

She’s saying she would be doing all the same things if she still had the energy to. She’s upset she hit the wall like most girls that choose to “party” in their 20s

Love this, thanks Michael

this was very insightful !

I really respect her for growing up and not exactly regretting her past mistakes but learning from them. This song actually does hit an emotional spot for me because Miley is the same age as me, I think she’s only a few months older. When she was going through her wild phase in 2013, I was even wilder than her and not even at my peak yet. So I kinda grew up with her. This song came out at the perfect time because I’m 30 and matured now. I have a husband and a kid and I’m not going out and doing very much partying and drugging these days. I feel like Miley and her family are secretly conservative, especially after what her brother just said about how only fans is damaging to women and they should be saving their body for their husband. People freaked out because that’s definitely not the liberal view in this society but I mean, he’s correct. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really like Miley. I think he has an amazing voice and is coming into her own now. Jaded is a beautiful song too. This song reminds me of The Climb but more mature.

Lol best ending to a video ever! 😂

Lets be honest Miley has always been so talented. Her voice is so beautiful and unique. Even when she went threw her growing fase finding herself. We all go threw that. Love who is has become and becoming

I remember when they made bad music? Now it's just music that is unlistenable.

Ok but why is this THE breakdown that I don’t even know I needed 😂 Michael dissecting Miley is kinda EVERYTHING 😂

LOL, i love the end.

Sorry Mike, I can't make out the lyrics but you have them in front of you, ..no fair. I didn't recognize her when she's not in leather or swinging naked on a wrecking ball chain.

So much for Miley aging gracefully!

It’s a song of self forgiveness for errors of the past. Everyone makes mistakes but she did it in the public eye and was dragged through the mud. She is also defending herself against all the critics who won’t let it go.

Really beautiful lyrics. Especially to those who can relate. ❤

She’s telling young people how much fun it is before they get old. Not to stop.

To me, the song sounds a lot like whining because she's getting older, as if it doesn't happen to everyone else in the world as well.

I'm 70 so it hits me hard too. I've got decades of crazy and fun to reflect on. So it's a timeless anthem in that regard. She's enormously talented. We haven't yet seen her best work! ❤❤

Great reaction!

She's trying to find a way to be relevant in a world of garden tools.

I think she's just expressing her gratitude to her younger years for the fun she had in them, and the lessons she learned from her mistakes back then, while acknowledging the fact that she is now more mature and different. She's not fully regretting her past, she's accepting it while fully embracing her future. I think this is a very important step to take. Other stars never accepted the fact that they matured. Stars like Madonna sadly never embraced her aging and was stuck in doing childish and immature things all the way to her 60s until she got to the place she's in now.