Miley Cyrus’ Voice Is Haunting & Enchanting Singing “Lilac Wine” in Her Backyard
You’ve never heard Miley Cyrus like this. The former The Voice Coach is known to sing everything from country to hip-hop, but it’s rare that we get an unadorned, acoustic ballad from the vocalist. In her “Backyard Sessions” series from 2012, though, Cyrus shows off her lovely vibrato in a soulful rendition of “Lilac Wine,” made famous by Nina Simone. Check it out, below.
Miley Cyrus sings “Lilac Wine” outdoors
Released in 2012, Cyrus’ cover was a smash success, showcasing her vocals beautifully. The Miami New Times wrote that the cover was “well beyond [Miley’s] young years,” and MTV declared, “Miley, you NAILED IT! We will absolutely never doubt you again.” As one YouTube commenter put it, “This is the first time I’ve cried my eyes out listening to someone sing.”
After releasing the video and seeing the positive response, Cyrus wrote on X, “been getting so much love on lilac wine 🙂 so happy! laying in bed thanking the universe for being so kind.”
Cyrus’ band for the performance included Stacy Jones on drums, Mike Schmid on piano, Jamie Arentzen on guitar, Jaco Curaco on guitar and Vashon Johnson on bᴀss. Per Billboard, Cyrus also performed the song live during an Australian stop on her 2014 Bangerz tour. Wish we could have been there!
What to know about the song “Lilac Wine”
“Lilac Wine” is about the intoxicating effects of love, and was written in 1950 by James Shelton. He composed the song for a short-lived Broadway musical, Dance Me a Song, and was inspired by the 1924 novel Sorrow in Sunlight, per the Financial Times. With lyrics like “Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love. Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love,” it is a potent ode to the early, heady days of an affair.
Originally performed on stage by Hope Foye, over the next few decades it would be covered by everyone from Eartha Kitt to Nina Simone to Jeff Buckley. Elkie Brooks’ 1978 version was the most contemporaneously popular, charting in the U.K.
Even more recently, longtime The Voice Coach John Legend and superstar John Mayer duetted the song during a 2015 episode of the Late Late Show. Watch the gorgeous rendition here.
