Miley Cyrus is perhaps best known for her provocative performances, but when it comes time to sing a simple duet with just one guitar, she does some of her best work! Cyrus and Shawn Mendes wowed the crowd at Dolly Parton: A MusiCares Tribute by singing Parton’s hit duet “Islands in the Stream.” Hitmaker and Cyrus collaborator Mark Ronson joined in by providing a tasteful hollowbody guitar part, completing the starpower trio onstage that night.
The Music Man readers may recall that Cyrus grew up on a farm outside of Nashville, Tennessee, so singing a country tune like this just comes as second nature to her. Parton is Cyrus’s godmother, and she looked on like a proud mum from the crowd as the popstar knocked the cover out of the park. She and Mendes certainly sound amazing together, but I have to say Cyrus really stole the show that night with a passionate and mesmerising performance.
Cyrus and Mendes performed the cover at the tribute event on February 8, 2019. Uploads of the performance quickly did the rounds on YouTube, attracting 3.5 million views across multiple uploads. Fans loved the duet and added comments such as “I just love how she looks at Dolly and Dolly looks at her so proudly” and “Over the years she’s become the most versatile singer in the business today – Bravo!”
“Islands in the Stream” was already part of Miley’s repertoire, as back in 2017 she sang the 1983 hit in a cheeky segment with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. The pair really hammed it up by donning wigs and outfits to look like Parton and Rogers. At the tribute night, Cyrus added her own flavor to the song, but on The Tonight Show, she performed the song with Parton’s signature twang. The segment was a hit online, and it managed to be both funny and quite poignant.
Cyrus told Variety that she cooked up the idea of the Mendes duet and reached out to him on Instagram to hook up the collab. The pop star explained that she told him, “‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do next,’ because I’ve actually been in his position in his career too before where you’re someone who I think is trying to fit into pop music and you want to be played on pop music but you don’t want to be conformist and you want to do your own thing.” Cyrus added that she loves how he plays alternative pop and that she likes to take the same approach in her music.