It’s not easy being the youngest of a musical dynasty like the Cyrus clan. But 11 years after stepping out as an artist on her own accord, Noah Cyrus has made the most of her greatest heirloom: her family.
In a family that’s achieved superstar status before you were even born, how do you figure out who you’re meant to be? For Noah Cyrus, the youngest sister of Miley Cyrus, that’s been the defining question.
Being born into one of music’s most recognisable families comes with a peculiar contradiction: opportunity arrives early, but so do expectations. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was country royalty before she was old enough to sing along to his songs. Her older brother, Trace, co-founded Metro Station, one of the most famed pop-rock bands of the MySpace era. Her sister, Miley, grew into one of pop’s biggest stars, dominating both music and television. In the Cyrus family, music isn’t just the family’s business – it’s their thing.
For Noah, now 26, whether she was destined to make music was never really up for debate. If anything, the challenge was figuring out how to make it her own, separate from the noise that inevitably follows a famous surname. The answer came shortly before she signed her first record deal at 16, when she fell headfirst for English singer-songwriter Ben Howard’s I Forget Where We Were record. “It inspired me to pick up a pen and try songwriting for myself,” she says. “Being the huge music fan I was, and listening to the music that I loved, I knew what I wanted my end goal to be.”
Another turning point came when Labrinth, the British composer behind the cult soundtrack of Euphoria’s first two seasons, and one of Noah’s songwriting heroes, heard an early demo of her 2017 single “Stay Together”. “He reached out to work together and getting to partner with him on my first song “Make Me Cry” helped solidify my journey,” she says. “Getting his approval of my songwriting meant the world to me.”
And that penchant for storytelling is something that has always sat at the centre of Noah’s artistry. Long before her sophomore album I WANT MY LOVED ONES TO GO WITH ME, released 11th July last year, became her most fully realised work, she’d built a catalogue around emotional honesty. Bedded on a country foundation with indie-rock melodies, folk-inspired instrumentation and pop strains sprinkled atop, she’d chronicle heartbreak, addiction, anxiety and depression, offering solace and hope amid the personal expression.
“Nostalgia was actually the key to this record. A lot of these thoughts and feelings spoken about on the record were confronting and addressing childhood as an adult and the way that things from my childhood affect me now as an adult,” she reveals. “Time was a huge discussion around the record. These songs, and the album’s title, were my realisation that time is too short and we don’t get enough of it with the people we love.”
Though time may have been the record’s central theme, family was always its anchor. Every corner of it traces back to the people who shaped her. “There are actually three generations of the Cyrus family involved in my album,” she shares. “Apple Tree” features her grandfather reciting his own self-penned hymn, which later inspired the album title. The second track, “Don’t Put It All On Me”, features five-piece indie-folk band Fleet Foxes, and was co-written by her second-older brother Braison – who also put the band on her radar when she was 12 years old – and Nashville-based songwriter-producer, Ben Cramer.
Then, there’s “With You”. “It was the first song that was written by my dad in his childhood bedroom at his home in Flatwoods, Kentucky that he later recorded,” she reveals. A process which proved cathartic. “It felt like a song that was just for him and I,” she explains. “I asked him if I could put it on the record, tying it all back to the Cyrus family lineage and our love for family and music.”
11 years in, two EPs and two albums deep, it’s that family-first ethos that has been an undeniable advantage. They’ve always been a strong foundation to return to, with Noah becoming an all-encompassing byproduct of it in turn. It’s now a new phenomenon for the music industry to welcome famous families; from The Jackson 5 to the Jonas Brothers, Sister Sledge to HAIM, to Beyoncé and Solange. Somewhere in that mix, we’ve had Miley and Noah. “It’s been nice to see us both evolve and grow musically,” Noah says. “I think especially from our parents’ points of view.”
Sometimes, the two lives and careers have overlapped. On Disney’s Hannah Montana, a six-year-old Noah made multiple cameos. In October 2020, they performed a compelling duet of Noah’s “I Got So High That I Saw Jesus” from her second EP, “The End of Everything” for MTV’s Backyard Session. Now, at 26 and 33, they seem more aligned than ever, with the two youngest Cyrus daughters taking on new fiancé titles – Noah is engaged to German designer Pinkus. Could another union be the creation of a joint jingle? “I would love to do a song like “High” off the album, Plastic Hearts, with Miley,” she says. “Something that is full of a harmonious family blend.”
But beyond blood relatives, Noah has enlisted an eminent list of musicians as collaborators on her new record. From Ben Callahan, famed indie-rock artist of the ‘80s, to legend Blake Shelton, rising Southern darling, Ella Langley, and country mainstays Orville Peck and Plastic Hearts, with Stephen Wilson Jr, the impressive supporting cast augment the album’s deluxe edition. In her country-charmed musical fable, she gathers artists that share her love for songwriting and storytelling. “It’s what I listen to first in a song; when they can convey honest and relatable expression and the true identity and artistry is noticeably and clearly coming from them,” she says.
Stretching her credits beyond writing, dabbling in sonic production and instrumentation, having a more hands-on role in this album has changed the way Noah hears herself, not just Miley. Something as a musician, but an artist as a whole. “I’ve always felt a deep connection to dynamics in music where the instruments align to make memorable moments in a song. That’s what I try to bring to the table musically,” she says. “I was extremely grateful that my collaborators, producer Mike Crossey and executive producer PJ Harding trusted me to step into the “producing shoes”. PJ and I have a very open and special bond, which allows us to get more vulnerable.”
One way she expresses that vulnerability is onstage. Dialling in from North Carolina, she joins chart-topping “Ordinary” singer-songwriter Alex Warren on his Finding Family On The Road tour. Dressed in floor-length, lace-trimmed corseted dresses, she throws her head back in true rocker form, twirling across the stage like a character stepped out of a Southern folklore. “Since I was eight years old, I have had a deep connection with the character Elphaba from [the Broadway show-turned-Hollywood-blockbuster] Wicked. I try to embody her at all of my shows,” she laughs. In Noah’s world, where country, gothic romance and folklore meet beneath the stage lights, she can be anything she wants to be.
But the place that she feels most drawn to is where it all began: at home. “I grew up on a very large farm and from the first day I can remember of my life, my father surrounded us with nature and music,” she reflects. “He also introduced me to the love and spiritual connection of horsemanship.” It led her to an important philosophy that her paternal grandfather once bestowed upon her father, inevitably landing in her lap: “That the outside of a horse is good or the inside of a man.”
Majestic, otherworldly, strong; it’s a befitting embodiment for Noah as she navigates this new lease of life – one where she’s no longer wrestling with her freedom. On the I WANT MY LOVED ONES TO GO WITH ME album cover, she’s a feathered enchantress with wavy, midnight-black tresses, her back turned as she looks towards a glowing white horse. Here, she reckons with the beauty that can still shine through near-total darkness – a lesson that Noah has had to overcome and define for herself. Because, despite the fame, fanfare and favour that life has showered upon her, her heart is set simply on a few things: “Spending time with horses and my dogs are the only things I want to do when I am not making music.”
For Noah, it seems staying close to home is what helped her go the distance. “What I hope I learned from the lessons and words spoken over me, through my grandparents and while going to church, is that we will be reunited with our loved ones,” she resolves. And when she does reach the other side, “I will be standing with my horse, Constantine. And if he isn’t there…I’d like to speak with the manager.”
WONDERLAND SUMMER 2026. GUEST EDITED BY MILEY CYRUS. SHOP NOW.
Photography Noah Cyrus
Words Aswan Magumbe