Noah Cyrus celebrated the release of her new EP The End of Everything today (May 15) by performing a few songs and giving insider details during her Billboard Live At-Home concert, which raised money for Direct Relief.
She first played her breakup ballad “July” on the piano, the third song she wrote for the eight-song project that inspired the entire process a couple of years ago. “I had a breakup on July 4th, which is what the song is about. My boyfriend of two years and I broke up in 2018 on July 4th. And I went home and I finally got out all the words that I never got to really say about the relationship,” the 20-year-old artist explained. “That song kind of started a whole new chapter of my life for me, which is what drove me to want to write an EP like this.”
“Ghost,” the first song on The End of Everything and the first song she wrote, dealt with her trials and tribulations as a young girl constantly at war with her reflection in the mirror. “‘Ghost’ is a song about… basically me looking as this little girl into the mirror and having all these demons on my back and behind me since I was a kid,” Cyrus said. “There’s been people that have not only talked about me as a person my whole life growing up, but what I look like and called me ugly my whole life. And it made me not want to ever look in the mirror when I was a child.”
But as far as lyrical themes go with breakups and bullies, the melancholic title track “The End of Everything,” which she ended her 20-minute set with, signals a much greater demise that not even coronavirus could infect on its own. A 30-minute YouTube video titled “TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time” piqued Cyrus’ curiosity, as she contemplated how one day she’d lose her loves ones by her side and the nature surrounding her home.
“It’s a timelapse of the universe and how it comes to its end scientifically. And I started thinking about my family and… there’s mountains and a valley outside of my window… and just realizing that one day it’ll all be gone blew my mind,” she said. But that day has yet to come, and Cyrus’ family still keeps an eye out on her as her mother Tish Cyrus snuck a quick “Love” comment on Billboard‘s livestream.
Watch Cyrus’ whole Billboard Live At-Home performance and listen to her brand new EP The End of Everything below, and donate to Direct Relief here.
