Miley Cyrus performed at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas last night, and closed out her act with a big surprise.
She decided to give the audience a little ~throwback~ to 2009, with a performance of her hit "Party in the U.S.A." But this time around, Miley gave the song a powerful political message.
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Miley introduced the song with a speech about fighting for equality:
Now I've got one more song for you guys. And I thought it would be perfect for tonight, especially right after "We Can't Stop." Because, you know what I won't stop doing? I won't stop fighting for justice for every single person in this entire fucking place.
"We shouldn't be scared of walking down the street," she told the crowd. "We shouldn't be scared of this violence. We shouldn't be scared of humans against humans."
"And so for this song, you're gonna see some words on the screen," she said. "I'm gonna do 'Party in the U.S.A.,'"
"But you know what? It's not a 'Party in the U.S.A.' if we don't have all these things that are gonna come up on the screen," she explained.
"It's not a 'Party in the U.S.A.' if we don't have equality, unity, justice, compassion, kindness, opportunity, healthcare, education, non-violence."
"So fuck yeah, it will be a 'Party in the U.S.A.' We'll see it. And if we all fucking come together we'll fucking make sure that it is, because I'm not giving up. We can't stop."
Miley then absolutely slayed a rock rendition of "Party in the U.S.A." The song starts at about 30 seconds into this video:
View this video on YouTube
Words flashed on the giant screen behind her, and she occasionally called them out during the song — including "dreamers," "hope," "justice," "understanding," and "love."
And then, just for good measure, she dropped tons of red, white, and blue confetti onto the audience and said goodnight.
Now THAT'S how you do it, Miley.
