If you haven’t been following Miley Cyrus’s exploits, she wiped away any last traces of Hannah Montana innocence with her sexually suggestive twerking performance at the MTV video music award show in August this year.
Sorry Miley – you just don’t compare!
Then came the video for her latest single Wrecking Ball, in which she swings naked on a demolition ball and licks a sledgehammer in a suggestive manner. It turns out that Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball video is based on Irish singer/songwriter Sinead O’Conner’s “Nothing Compares to You” video. According to Miley’s Rolling Stone interview, Sinead was her role model.
* Watch the videos “Wrecking Ball” and “Nothing Compares to You” at the end of the article.
As parents and mothers, we are all too aware of how powerful the influence of popular singers like Miley can be on our young and impressionable daughters. Do you really want your 12-year old daughter – who used to love Hannah Montana and now is a massive Miley-the-pop-star fan – to be emulating the singer’s recent behaviour? We think not. And this is also probably how Sinead (who is a mother of 4 and not one to back away from a controversial topic) felt. She decided to use the opportunity to give Miley some motherly advice.
A music veteran’s motherly advice
“I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping.”
What kind of example is Miley Cyrus setting for our daughters?
“I repeat, you have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prostitute of you. You shouldn’t let them make a fool of you either…They’re there for the money, we’re there for the music. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. The sooner a young lady gets to know that, the sooner she can be REALLY in control.”
Read on for more of Sinead’s motherly advice to Miley Cyrus
Reality of the music business
“The music business doesn’t give a s__t about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted… and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, ‘they’ will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.”
This is pretty good advice from a music veteran, a mother, a survivor and a woman who never used her sexuality to sell music. And having been in the music industry for decades, she probably knows what she’s talking about. You’d think some it would make sense to a girl of 20 who released a video featuring her straddling a wrecking ball buck naked, right? Not really, even though according to Miley, Sinead was her role model.
Miley’s response
Revealing her immaturity and lack of good judgement, Miley turned to twitter and mocked Sinead’s much-publicized battle with bipolar disorder by comparing it to Amanda Bynes’ mental health issues.
And how did the feud develop? Find out on the next page
She then took an even more inappropriate and immature step and posted an image of Sinead’s Saturday Night Live appearance when she ripped up a photo of the pope, as evidence of her apparent madness.
But the Irish singer is an old hand at controversy and wasted no time in putting the younger woman in her place.
Sinead trumps Miley
You know the saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Miley clearly hadn’t heard of it. And she learnt it the hard way. Sinead’s first open letter was meant in good faith and was supportive of the young and talented musician. But her second letter put the younger woman in her place, and rightly so. Most of you would agree that Miley without a doubt, sets a bad example to young women around the world who are her fans. But all this aside, if you look past Miley’s bravado and self-appointed bad-girl image, I’m sure as a mother you can see a sad, lonely young woman who is desperate for attention and lacks immensely in confidence and self-esteem.
As responsible parents and mothers, how can we make sure our daughters don’t turn out like Miley? The follow-up article brings you ‘5 lessons for your daughter’ that we hope will provide some food for thought. It also brings you sections of Sinead’s scathing reply to Miley Cyrus in the form of a 2nd open letter.
Compare the 2 videos.
Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares to You”
Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”
* This video may be unsuitable for children.
RELATED LINKS
Lessons for our daughters – Sinead’s second open letter to Miley