After Miley Cyrus dominated 2013's headlines with shocking awards show moments on international stages -- twerking with teddy bears in Brooklyn, smoking a joint in Amsterdam and singing with space kittens in Los Angeles -- the possibilities are unlimited for what the singer will do on her upcoming Bangerz tour.
Yet the 21-year-old singer assures that those who attend will be entertained by what they see and hear. "I want people to walk away saying, 'OK she did some things that were crazy, but at the end of the day, it was really about her voice,'" she told reporters during a conference call.
Especially regarding the rising ticket prices that her younger fan base will pay, she reassured, "I just want to be something that is worth going to see... I already made the money that I need to make, this is about now putting the money into something that I care about."
Here are 8 things to expect from Cyrus' North American Bangerz tour, which kicks off Feb. 14 in Vancouver, BC:
1. Feast your eyes on a massive screen. "That's something I've actually had to fight for a little bit," she said, most inspired by the visuals on Madonna'stours. "It isn't the easiest thing to travel with in the space that we're using, and in some of the cities, my screen is actually too large... each city is going to be the biggest that it can be, and the best that their arena will allow us to have. Everything will always feel big... some of the stuff we're doing is so dope." And rather than wowing with onstage stunts, Cyrus will only enter and exit on a spectacular prop, focusing on singing entirely live in between.
2. Look out for more of her four-legged friends. "Our whole tour is literally based on animals!" she said, noting that much of the content is especially sketched by Ren &Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, including "imaginative animals he's made on his own." She recalled that the two recently became close over dinner, when he sketched the starstruck singer for two hours.
3. Expect more than confetti to fall from the sky. "I'm giving lots of junk away," she teased, rather than offering a wide selection of tour merchandise. "This is my mom's worst nightmare, because I always hoard things from when I go to concerts... all the kids always want to keep the confetti, but I want to give them real things to collect."
4. Self-parodies will make appearances. "I don't have a hard time making fun of myself, so the whole thing is making the way people perceive me and doing that even more, be the character myself," she said of the 2013 throwbacks present in the set list. "That'swhat I think I've been representing, more than anything, in the past year. Being fun and carefree, and that's really what the show represents." She did confirm, "we're definitely bringing some kitties."
5. Less is still more for tour costumes. Each designer was given a different section to outfit Cyrus for, so look out for looks from Marc Jacobs, The Blonds, and Jeremy Scott as well as archive pieces from Bob Mackie. "Clothes for me, or lack thereof, say a lot," she joked of her traveling costume closet.
6. The concert has no time limit. Though the show, directed by Diane Martel, has a set list that spans 90-minutes, Cyrus made sure to preserve the acoustic section of her previous tours. This part of the concert will be comprised of acoustic renditions of her hits as well as covers, and "can go for as long as I want," depending on the city and the audience's energy. Still she noted that most of her set list will root from her most recent album, with her previous hits only barely sprinkled in.
7. Special guests are guaranteed. "I have friends that worked on my album in all of these cities, so anytime I'm in the same city, I'm definitely gonna drag everybody out," she said of Future, Mike Wills Made It and other Bangerz collaborators.
8. Get ready for girl power. Opening acts Sky Ferrera and Icona Pop were strategically chosen, says Cyrus. "I think it's hard for friends that are in their 20s to be friends with other girls, there's a lot of competition, and what I love about her is we've never felt that way," she said of Ferrera, adding that "Icona, they had a really good year, and I think they're a band that people can look out to be rising even more." She noted that she sees herself as a feminist and likes to fill her work environments with as many women as possible.
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