Miley Cyrus’ Hollywood Bowl Setlist Leads With the Album the Charts Dropped

Miley Cyrus walked into her first headline show in years at the Hollywood Bowl with an album the charts had already abandoned, and she played it first. The songs that made her a household name came later, and for several of them she turned the microphone toward the seats and let Los Angeles do the singing.

The coverage has filed the night as a long-awaited live return on her own terms, with a tearful tribute to Dolly Parton at its center. All true. But Miley had already told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe what these two nights were for: “the ultimate dress rehearsal” for a residency that lets her sleep in her own bed. Read that way, the running order works as an audition, and it says a lot about what she thinks she is selling.

Miley Cyrus Hollywood Bowl setlist, song by song

As published by Variety and matched by Billboard’s recap, the first night ran: “Orbit”; “Different Religion” with Model/Actriz; “Bass Persuades” into its remix; “Handstand”; “Something Beautiful”; “Jolene”, the Dolly Parton cover; “Walk of Fame”; “Redlights”; “Do You Realize??” and “Karen Don’t Be Sad” with Wayne Coyne; “We Can’t Stop”; “Wrecking Ball”; “Snow”; “Used to Be Young”; “The Climb”; “Party in the U.S.A.”; and an encore of “Let’s Get Married” and “Flowers”.

Three new songs before a single hit

She opened with the hat trick from Bass Persuades: “Orbit”, then “Different Religion”, for which Billboard reports she strapped on an electric guitar and brought the opening act Model/Actriz back out, then the title track sliding into its remix. “Handstand” followed, from Endless Summer Vacation, introduced with “You didn’t expect this one, did you?” Variety’s review counted nearly half the setlist as live debuts.

That is a pointed choice for this record in particular. Bass Persuades debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 units, her first chart-topper since Bangerz in 2013, and fell to No. 157 a week later. Stereogum, citing Variety, called it the biggest drop ever from a No. 1 debut, and its diagnosis was blunt: no big hit single, a title track that peaked at No. 35, no tour on the books. At the Bowl, the album that fell off the chart got the opening slot.

The hits went to the crowd

The catalog arrived in the back half, and Variety’s Steven J. Horowitz noticed how she handled it: she largely held the mic toward the audience for “We Can’t Stop” and “Party in the U.S.A.” and let the crowd carry “Wrecking Ball” and “Flowers”. He found the night “confounding, oftentimes bizarre and, in the end, strangely entertaining.” Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens heard something else, writing that the new material live “helps it snap into place” in her catalog.

Both reviews agree on where the emotion lived. Miley told the crowd the only time she had seen her late godmother Dolly Parton perform was at this venue, said “Me and Dolly are eternal,” and went into “Jolene”. She later sang “Wrecking Ball” holding a heart-shaped frame of Parton, explaining it was “Dolly’s favorite song of mine.” Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips met her on a B-stage in the stands for “Do You Realize??” and “Karen Don’t Be Sad”, a nod to Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, which she called “my favorite album that I’ve ever made.”

“People will come to me”

The quote that explains the construction came before the show. According to Rova’s account of the interview, Lowe suggested she would need a residency of 80 shows at the Bowl to satisfy demand, and she admitted that had been her original idea. Then, as Variety quoted her: “I’ve learned now through the queue that my calculations are correct and people will come to me. I don’t need to drive to you. Proven, that was a quick test. I win. So this is perfect because people like to see me perform and I like to sleep in my marshmallow bed so we can both be happy.”

The joke has a serious floor. She told Lowe she picked the Bowl because her bed was a ten-minute drive away, and that rest is “a big piece of that puzzle” in protecting her sobriety. Back in 2023 she told British Vogue that after the Bangerz tour, her last full one, she asked herself whether she wanted to live “for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own.” Onstage the cost was visible in her own words: after walking back to the main stage through the crowd, she said the love she felt was “a little bit overwhelming.”

The run is two nights, both sold out, with Model/Actriz opening: Friday, October 16, and Sunday, October 18. Reports on the ticket queue diverge widely, with mxdwn putting it at nearly 1.5 million fans and a ticket resale blog at half a million; Billboard lists the Bowl’s capacity at 17,500. Bass Persuades came out September 18 through Atlantic Records, her first album for the label and her first billed simply as Miley.

Her ad-lib on “Flowers” gave the night its headline. “Started to cry but then remembered,” she sang, “I sold out the Hollywood Bowl!” The brag she chose was the room, not the chart, and if a residency follows, that line was the pitch.

Tags: concerts, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, Bass Persuades, Hollywood Bowl, Wayne Coyne