Miley Cyrus Signs With Columbia Records

Singer Miley Cyrus has signed with Columbia Records after seven years and four albums on RCA. A source close to the situation tells Variety that even though both Columbia and RCA are Sony-owned labels, there’s no animosity and the deal stems from Miley and her co-managers Adam Leber and Tish Cyrus’ long and positive relationship with Columbia chief Ron Perry, who signed Miley directly.

Miley’s sister Noah is signed with Columbia-distributed RECORDS label, and Lil Nas X, who is managed by Leber, is also signed to the label.

Her most recent album with RCA, “Plastic Hearts,” was released in November and received largely positive reviews. However, Cyrus’ didn’t approach the success of her first album with the label, 2013’s “Bangerz,” a blockbuster success that saw her breaking out of the teen-star mold that had been set on her early releases through Hollywood Records and her starring role on the “Hannah Montana” television show. The album spawned hits like “Wrecking Ball” and “We Can’t Stop” and established Cyrus as a major star.

However, in what might be perceived as a rebellion, Cyrus defied expectations, following “Bangerz” with a strange, psychedelic album with the Flaming Lips under the name Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz in 2015; she also promoted a strongly sexualized image that, perhaps most controversially, saw her twerking on Robin Thicke while they performed his hit “Blurred Lines” on the MTV VMAs in 2013. The singer addressed this era in a song on “Plastic Hearts” called “Mother’s Daughter”: “They told me to cover it/ So I went the other way.”

Within a couple of years she had returned to a more pop setting with 2017’s “Younger Now,” although “Plastic Hearts” was the album that found her returning to form musically.

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