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Cryptic? Miley Cyrus’ River lyrics are exactly what we need right now. The “Flowers” songstress released her new album Endless Summer Vacation on March 10, 2023 and the seventh track in her words is “nasty.”
The Hannah Montana alum explained that her new album is split into two parts, with River starting the second part as the P.M. part. “In the nighttime, it feels that there’s a slinky, seediness, and kind of a grime, but a glamor at the same time. In the evening, it’s a great time for rest, it’s a time to recover — or, it’s a time to go out and experience the wild side,” she said in her Disney Plus special “The Backyard Sessions”in March 2023. “In L.A. there’s a certain energy to the night that you can kind of feel trouble boil up to the surface and it’s very inspiring to me.”
So what do Miley Cyrus’ “River” lyrics mean? And are they about Liam Hemsworth? Read more below to find out.
What do Miley Cyrus’ “River” lyrics mean?
What do Miley Cyrus’ “River” lyrics mean? When she was teasing out the album, Miley went in depth about the song in her Disney Plus special “The Backyard Sessions” in March 2023. “It was a time in my life where I was going through just a lot emotionally and personally, and I guess all my songs kind of evolve,” she said. “They can start as something that was a trouble, like, it just feels like it’s an April shower. It never stops raining. And then it started raining down like love.”
She continued in the special, “River sometimes we just need to dance for a banger a.k.a they dont want me to talk about how the fact the song is about,” the clip cuts out with a censor bleep. “It’s f—ing nasty.”
Fans theorized that it bleep censored out the word for ejaculation, while others also kept on the theory that it might be about her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth and his cheating scandals.
A fan tweeted out, “miley cyrus has filmed her newest music video for ‘RIVER’ in the same house of the Flowers video but with 14 men, 14 as the number of women that liam cheated on her with..she’s MESSY 😭” In the music video, it shows Miley dancing around 14 men in a black and white background.
Though like the “Flowers” music video theories, the reports are unverified. However, that doesn’t mean the possibilities aren’t there. The music video for the lead single from Endless Summer Vacation “Flowers” was an instant hit. Pop culture Twitter PopTingz claimed that the set of the music video was where Hemsworth allegedly cheated on Cyrus with 14 women. “The house where the music video for Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” was recorded was previously used by Liam Hemsworth to cheat on Miley with more than 14 women while they were married,” the account tweeted, but the tweet itself is unverified. The tweet went viral with more than 40,000 likes and 10,000 retweets.
Liam and Miley were in an on-and-off relationship since 2009 when they met on the set of The Last Song. In one instance in an interview with Howard Stern, Miley also revealed that she didn’t think her and Hemsworth would ever tie the knot. “We were together since 16,” she said. “Our house burned down. We had been like, engaged—I don’t know if we really ever thought we were actually going to get married, but when we lost our house in Malibu—which if you listen to my voice pre- and post-fire, they’re very different so that trauma really affected my voice. And I was actually in South Africa, so I couldn’t come home, and like, my animals were tied to a post at the beach. I lost everything.”
She continued to talk about her relationship with Hemsworth with Howard Stern in December 2020. “Me being an intense person and not wanting to sit with it and not wanting to go, you know, ‘What could be purposeful about this?’ I just clung to what I had left of that house, which was me and him,” she told Stern. “And I really do and did love him very, very, very much and still do, always will.”
Miley and Liam married in 2018 and announced their split less than a year later in 2019. The couple definitely had their ups and downs—including a pretty disastrous experience in late 2018, when California wildfires wiped out their home in Malibu. Cyrus told Howard Stern that she and the 30-year-old Hunger Games star “lost everything.” Miley references the disaster in the first verse “We were right ’til we weren’t / Built a home and watched it burn.” In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2020, she revealed that the fire “did what I couldn’t do myself”. “It removed me from what no longer was serving its purpose,” she told the magazine. “And then as you drown, you reach for that lifesaver and you want to save yourself. I think that’s really what, ultimately, getting married was for me. One last attempt to save myself.”
The Bangerz singer denied the cheating rumors when she was fresh out of the divorce. In August 2019, she tweeted, “The truth is, once Liam & I reconciled, I meant it, & I was committed. There are NO secrets to uncover here. I’ve learned from every experience in my life. I’m not perfect, I don’t want to be, it’s boring. I’ve grown up in front of you, but the bottom line is, I HAVE GROWN UP. I can admit to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating. Liam and I have been together for a decade. I’ve said it before & it remains true, I love Liam and always will.” She continued, “BUT at this point, I had to make a healthy decision for myself to leave a previous life behind. I am the healthiest and happiest I have been in a long time. You can say I am a twerking, pot-smoking, foul-mouthed hillbilly but I am not a liar.”
Miley Cyrus “River” lyrics
Here are Miley Cyrus’ River lyrics via Genius.
[Verse 1]
I got a new dress just to meet you downtown
Can you walk me through the park just to show it off?
I can pull my hair back in that tight way that you like
If you wrap me in your arms and never stop
[Pre-Chorus]
Heart beats so loud that it’s drownin’ me out
Livin’ in an April shower
You’re pourin’ down, baby, drown me out (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
[Chorus]
You’re just like a river (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
You’re just like a river (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
You go on forever
You’re just like a river
[Verse 2]
Blowing bubbles in the bath, I can’t stop from thinking lately
You could be the one, have the honor of my babies
Hope they have your eyes and that crooked smile
Was a desеrt ‘fore I met you, I was in a drought
[Pre-Chorus]
Heart bеats so loud that it’s drownin’ me out
Livin’ in an April shower
You’re pourin’ down, baby, drown me out (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
[Chorus]
You’re just like a river (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
You’re just like a river (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
You go on forever
You’re just like a river
[Post-Chorus]
You’re never runnin’ dry (Oh)
[Bridge]
I feel you everywhere
Your face is all in my hair (Hair)
Covered up in your sweat
It turns me on that you care, baby
Your love, it flows just like a river
[Chorus]
You’re just like a river (That’s what you are)
You’re just like a river (That’s what you are)
You’re just like a river (That’s what you are)
You’re just like a river
You’re just like a river (Heart beats so loud that it’s drownin’ me out)
You’re just like a river (Livin’ in an April shower)
You go on forever (You’re pourin’ down, baby, drown me out)
You’re just like a river
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