miley and lilly(emily osment)
HAN-NAH!! HAN-NAH!!
The chanting grows crazy-loud. The arena gets dark, and the jumbo monitor above the stage shows a glittery, '80s-outfitted popstar exiting her glam dressing room. The audience screams louder. On-screen, the camera follows the tall, lean star walking toward the now barely-under-control sold-out audience.
"I'm Hannah Montana! Let's get this party started! How y'all doin' tonight?" The crowd's deafening roar means everyone is doin' fine. Live and in person is their new favorite Disney star. A girl can't help screaming herself hoarse.
"I'm so glad you're here tonight," Hannah says before introducing a song off the recently released Hannah Montana soundtrack. The crowd is on its feet, singing every word along with her. After Hannah, the Cheetah Girls do their thing, an even bigger production. All in all, it's two hours of hot show.
The Cheetahs will heat up stages around the country weekly through mid-January, but this is one of Hannah's last shows before taking a break from the road (go to mileycyrus.com to find out when she goes back on tour).
Before Hannah Becomes Hannah
Before the blond wig is secured firmly in place, Hannah Montana is Miley Cyrus, a 14-year-old teen from Tennessee. In the anti-glamour of pre-show, Miley is completely down-to-earth. She wears sweats, a hooded tee and Uggs. She sits in her tour bus, parked alongside the Cheetah Girls' bus. "Hi, how ya doin'?" she says in that scratchy-cool twang.
GL meets Miley with a reporter and three lucky Hannah fans: Sally, Sarah and Sadie, who are sisters. Before stepping onto the bus, the sisters argue about whether they now like Hannah more than Hilary Duff--a debate that's likely being had by girls all over the country. So we ask: Has Miley dethroned Hilary as the Teen Queen?
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," says Miley. "No way. Hilary is a huge star. I'm just gettin' started. I moved from a small town to L.A. But once you're a country girl, you never change. I'm still me."
Living a life in which you are yourself some of the time and a popstar at other times ... sounds suspiciously familiar! "What happened to Hannah could happen in real life," says Miley. "Hannah wants to live her dream and still be a normal kid." And with Miley? "I'm so glad I don't have to keep things secret from anyone. If the show was my real life, I'd be like, 'Hey, everyone, guess what--I'm Hannah Montana!'"
Hannah Is Not A Fake!
You already know, on the show, Hannah Montana doesn't tell people her real identity. Or, is Hannah Montana more like Miley's fake identity, like an alter ego? We ask Miley how she sees it. "It's not faking," she says. "I'm Miley. Onstage, I'm Hannah."
While the Hannah Montana premiere drew the biggest audience in Disney Channel history (5.4 million viewers!), Miley doesn't think of herself as a big star, and it's funny to her that you do. Sadly, the Hannah TV character doesn't have the luxury of being able to talk about her "real" life. This begs a question we've been anxious to ask: Does Miley think keeping the truth from people is the same as lying, a lie by omission?
"No, I don't think it's a lie," says Miley. "Hannah does not want to be treated differently. I wouldn't want to be someone you couldn't say 'hello' to. I want to be very approachable. Say 'hi' to me. I love it. Everyone I have a chance to take a picture with or sign an autograph for--just a quick way to make them smile--that's awesome."
Modest. Honest. And ... hungry. Miley picks at a package of chocolatey goo. "It's just plain ol' cookie dough," she says, smiling big as she holds up her doughy fingers. "I eat it outta the package, see?" Cookie dough has raw eggs in it, so does she know she could get sick?
"My mom tells me that all the time, and I just say, 'I'm not gonna get sick.'" Her chocolate-chip dough is part of a diet that also regularly includes gummy bears and fast food. Miley's mom, who tours with her, jokingly rolls her eyes when we look to her for an opinion on her daughter's food choices.
We ask Miley about her real-life father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who also plays her dad on the show. "My dad is good at embarrassing me," says Miley. "We saw Kelly Clarkson at an event, and my dad said, 'Oh, my God! My daughter is the biggest fan. She would love a picture with you!' I looked at her, and I was like, 'Sorry, so sorry about my dad.' But Kelly's from Texas, so she knows country music and we talked about that.
miley and her dad!
miley is a crazy girl
