Miley Cyrus manifests the 20-year special of Hannah Montana with Younger You

Source: Walt Disney Studios / Disney+

 

Let me get this straight: I am a proud Smiler. Smiler’s, for those unaware, is what Miley Cyrus’ devoted fanbase calls themselves- and it fits like a glove. Miley Cyrus made some noise and blasted her way into our hearts way back in 2006 when Disney Channel aired the pilot of Hannah Montana. The premise of the show was simple - a young girl gets to live out her dreams of being a rockstar, without losing out on having a ‘normal life.’ How did she manage this? A blonde wig, a puff of make-up, and an attitude to boot. 

 

The show skyrocketed Miley to superstardom and since then she has morphed from good-girl, Teen Pop star, to the twerking, liberating era of Bangerz, to her glam-rock persona she adopted during Plastic Hearts. Miley is a chameleon like pop has rarely seen. One would think she had lived several lifetimes already. 

 

Was Miley always destined for stardom? Having a father like Billy Ray Cyrus, himself a country music star, certainly helped Miley have industry connections from a young age, but there is no doubt, Miley earned everything she has today, and this special proved it. 

 

Now that my gushing is out of the way - what were my thoughts on this highly anticipated 20th Hannah-versary Special? Did it live up to expectations? Could more have been done? Were there surprises? Let’s discuss. 

 

SPOILERS AHEAD - OBVIOUSLY. 

 

The special opens most classically - Hannah Montana is driving down the Malibu coast towards the home so many came to know and love, with the classic hit, ‘Rock Star’ playing in the background. A montage soon follows of the absolute craze that was 2006 - 2011, showing news reels and clippings from when Miley was at the height of her Hannah fame. 

Miley arrives at the studio lot, walks inside, and does the thing in style. Complete in Hannah hair and clothes, the iconic drum beat of the show's opening theme song, ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ begins, and we know we’re in for a treat. Harkening back to the Hannah Montana Movie scene where Miley enters the stage from a crouch position on a platform riser, Miley emerges as a full pop star and performs the hit song to a raptly attentive crowd. The joy and energy are effervescent - Miley is present and giving 100%. 

 

Miley ends the song and arrives at the set where the show was filmed many years ago, before turning on the lights and walking inside. Miley gets emotional. The audience gets emotional. In the messy year that 2026 has been so far, for a moment, everything felt right. As Cyrus notes later in the special, “it just feels good when the Cyrus’ are getting along,” and she’s not wrong. 

 

The special proceeds with an in-depth interview with the host of the Call Her Daddy Podcast, Alex Cooper. Initially, when I heard Cooper would be doing the interviewing for the special, I was sceptical. Cooper’s interviewing style, from what I’ve observed of her work, did not seem a good fit for what I would expect from a Hannah Montana-inspired property. Cooper previously interviewed Miley for her 2020 album Plastic Hearts, and whilst the collaboration worked well for Miley Cyrus, I was unsure at how Hannah Montana would fare being interviewed by Cooper. This ended up being one of the many great strengths of this special. 

 

Miley understood that Miley and Hannah co-exist. One does not exist without the other. Cooper’s line of questioning was simple, fun, and a perfect fit with the energy that Miley herself was radiating. Cooper also positioned the questions for the audience tuning in. Engaging for younger audiences, who may have been encouraged to tune in by a parent, whilst simultaneously digging for all the tea, fans who grew up with the show are clamouring to know. Some of my favourite topics of conversation from Cooper’s questioning included her pushing for Miley to choose between the biggest love triangle of the show - Jake or Jessie? Whether Miley experienced culture shock when she moved to L.A. from Nashville. Bringing up just how important Miley’s mother’s (Tish Cyrus-Purcell) involvement in the show was. Asking Miley what she would say to her younger self today. These were excellent, and to hear Miley’s answers, you will have to tune in to the special to find out. 

 

THE GUEST STARS

Now let’s talk about all the guest stars and cameos, cause there were a lot of them. Tish Cyrus, Miley’s ever-present mother, had an extended, hilarious scene where the pair reflected on Miley’s wardrobe and the importance of creating a distinction between what was Miley Cyrus and what was Hannah Montana clothing. Branding is very important to any artist, and Miley had to constantly toe that line. This special showcases some insights into how the team achieved this, and it's both hilarious and fascinating to learn. 

 

Aforementioned, Billy Ray Cyrus, who played Miley’s on-screen fictional father, returned for the special. Rocking a fresh, trimmed look, which Miley credits herself for, it was nice to see this dynamic duo together again. After a public feud, its comfort I felt seeing them reunited, especially on the set where so many got to become familiar with them. Billy Ray has had some personal baggage to unpack, and if this special is anything to go by, it seems he is taking the right steps. I wish him all the best. Nothing made me giddier than seeing the two cold line-read a scene from season 4. It served to show how much Miley’s acting has improved, and to cap it off, hearing Billy Ray call Miley “bud” again - if you watched the show, you know why that was exciting. 

Also from the Cyrus-clan, Miley’s youngest sister, Noah Cyrus, made a brief cameo appearance as well. It was sweet, Noah making a cameo appearance, and was a nice ode to the fact that she cameo-d often in the original series, playing various supporting one-off characters. 

 

Further surprises included fellow ex-Disney star, Selena Gomez, who played Mikayla Skeech on the show, who returned for a brief reunion. Cyrus and Gomez reminisced over their shared experience, and it seemed to be healing for them both. The highlight for me was when Selena mentioned that Miley’s first album, Meet Miley Cyrus, was on repeat for her when she was younger and concluded by stating that Miley “created culture” - because for some of us, Miley really did. 

 

A huge surprise was Chappell Roan’s appearance. This was not on my 2026 bingo card, and I have a bit to break down from this. Chappell Roan is a huge sensation. A pop-star known for her costumes and loud performances, Roan has faced scrutiny from the public for her treatment towards media and fans. She has been known to refuse photos, ignore fans, and set very firm expectations with the press about what she will and will not tolerate. Some applaud her boundary setting, whilst others think she goes too far in the standoffish direction. It begs an interesting question - as artists, how much do we owe our fans? 

 

Whilst I leave you to ponder your views on that topic, Roan’s presence in the special was to spotlight Hannah’s legacy. Roan has stated numerous times she was inspired by Hannah Montana, so to see her appear certainly isn’t totally left of field. I appreciated the look into how Miley’s time as Hannah allowed a whole generation of artists to follow in her stride. But something profound was mentioned. 

 

Roan commented on the harsh treatment Miley endured from the media during her time promoting her fourth album, Bangerz. “You walked so I could run”, Roan said as a response to Miley’s 2013 antics. “You took a lot of the heat”, and honestly, this is so true. A pop star’s job is to break boundaries, and that comes with a fair share of backlash. Miley’s past actions seem tame for today’s standards, but at the time, it was a sign of rebellion to see Miley naked on a wrecking ball and twerking on Robin Thicke. Miley has commented in the past that the reason why it was controversial for her specifically was because of who she was - Hannah Montana, good-girl gone bad. Britney Spears, Madonna, Rihanna, all these artists did similar things and were, for the most part, categorised as sex symbols and praised, but when Miley did it, due to her being someone parents used to babysit their kids, it was a scandal. Roan showing Miley appreciation was heartfelt, and cemented both Miley and Hannah’s legacies in pop culture.

 

THE MUSIC

Now let’s look into the songs. Obviously, you can’t begin a Hannah Montana production without the show's fitting and ever-timely theme song, ‘Best of Both Worlds.’ Miley’s voice has aged like fine wine with this song, and she sings it with such resonance you can’t help but get excited. The choreography is very early-2000’s Disney, and it's nostalgia at its best. The band sounds incredible, the lighting is spot on, and the shots of the crowd stir jealousy in me that I haven’t felt for a long time. Whilst the song is fun, Miley’s voice sits in a deeper register than it used to, so when streaming the song, keep this in mind. 

 

‘This is the Life’ was also performed, and the song, much like the former, was fun and emotional. Miley has stated before that this is one of her favourite Hannah songs, so hearing her perform it, and with life experience now on her side, makes for a layered revamp. Miley closed out the Hannah songs with a new take on ‘The Climb.’ Disney promoted this heavily in the marketing, but if you have been following Miley Cyrus outside of Hannah, you will know Miley has sung this many times since the show ended, so the impact wasn’t felt quite as much on me as hearing her sing her Hannah-recorded songs. 

 

The only downside with the songs - Miley appeared to be lip syncing. Whilst I do not doubt that Miley sang the songs live on the day of filming, the audio has been dubbed over for the televised release. I believe that was to keep the atmosphere of the special intact, but it was at times distracting as a viewer. The saving grace for this, however, is that it kept the tone from the original series, where many Hannah songs were dubbed over in post-production. 

 

Source: Geo News

The special closed out with a cute, tear-jerker of a new song written by Miley for herself and the fans, and its called ‘Younger You.’ Miley has quite an affinity for Young-themed songs (‘Younger Now,’ ‘Used to Be Young’), and this feels like a nice addition. The song sounds very Hannah Montana, offering a tender finger-picked guitar intro, before Miley sings some emotionally reflective lyrics. In the background, a screen displays images of a young Cyrus in the original series of Hannah Montana, and it's quite touching. The lyrics from the new song that hit home for me were: “Hey you, it’s younger you. I was checking in to see if you still remember me,” as well as “But don’t forget to call your Mum and Dad too, he misses you.” Not only are they good lyrics that serve as a reminder to check in on yourself and those who love you, but they tie in nicely to the Hannah-universe, as Miley and her dad always were tight and close. 

 

THE MISSED MOMENTS

A missed opportunity is that many of the series regulars were absent from the special. Emily Osmet and Mitchell Musso, who played Miley’s best friends Lilly Truscott and Oliver Oaken, Jason Earles, who played Miley’s brother, Jackson Stewart, and Moises Arias, who played the beachside funny-man Rico Suave, were nowhere to be found. That felt a little disappointing, considering how influential they were to the show's success. 

 

I also thought it would have been cool to have had a skit, or dream sequence of an in-universe scene depicting what Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana was up to now. Imagine seeing what Miley got up to after choosing to go to college with Lilly. What music is Miley performing now? How does the in-universe Miley fuse Hannah with her regular self? I would see that going over very nicely with fans, and would have been a nice way to cap off the special, but I still believe what we got was beautiful, too. 

 

THE VERDICT

Sweet Niblets, that was a lot. Overall, the Hannah Montana: 20th Anniversary Special was a very fun, emotional, and informative special. It was endearing to hear the insights into Miley’s time as Hannah: how it affected her family, her life moving forward, as well as how it impacted an entire generation of people. Miley carried the special with humour and grace. It is inspiring to reflect on how charismatic and conscientious she is, considering all she went through. 

If you grew up watching Hannah Montana, this special will be sure to make the waterworks flood. If you discovered Miley from her smash hit success with ‘Flowers’ and are curious to learn more, this could be for you. If you are scrolling Disney+ looking for something to watch and have never seen an episode of Hannah Montana, this may not be something you can just jump into, but if you’re into fun wigs and costumes, entertaining music, high energy - oh yeah, and a lot of glam - this could be the thing for you.