by Davina Lennon

Created on: July 27, 2010

Miley Cyrus is the popular and talented US singer and actress, notably celebrated as the character ‘Hannah Montana’ in the Disney Channel series of the same name.

She has made a phenomenal rise to stardom both in her acting career as well as her singing career and has taken the tween culture by storm. So where did this young talent come from and how has she managed to maintain the popularity she continues to achieve today.

Destiny Hope Cyrus was born on the 23rd November 1992 in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Her parents are Billy Ray Cyrus (the popular country singer with the hit song Achy Breaky Heart) and Leticia ‘Tish’ Cyrus. She was raised on their farm in the backwoods of Nashville along with her five siblings. A very much loved and happy child she secured the nickname ‘smiley’, later shortened to ‘miley’. She would eventually change her birth name to Miley Ray Cyrus in honor of her father.

As a pre-teen she began writing songs and learning to sing, although she never formally took singing lessons. But her career took off at the early age of nine when she debuted in an episode of her father’s television series ‘Doc’ in 2003. Miley played a guest role of a girl named Kylie. During the same year she had a secured a minor role in Tim Burton’s film ‘Big Fish’ where she played the young Ruthie.

But her nationwide popularity was secured, in March 2006, when she was cast in the title role of the series ‘Hannah Montana’. Miley played a teenage girl who led a double life. Initially she was considered too small for the role and failed the first round of auditions. But the executives of the program changed their minds and at the age of 12 Miley took on the girl who ‘loved every minute of her life’, Hannah Montana.

The series became an instant success and a soundtrack CD, ‘Hannah Montana’, was released in October 2006 via the Walt Disney Records. Miley sang eight songs from the show, including a duet with her father Billy Ray on ‘I Learned From You’. The CD was successful and was chosen as the eighth bestselling album of the year in the US.

By midyear 2007 Miley had her first double album titled ‘Hannah Montana 2 : Meet Miley Cyrus, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 selling 326,000 copies during its first week of sales. Eventually it qualified becoming Platinum for having sales of 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Her very first concert tour was an immediate sellout which helped establish her as a teen idol. In 2007 she signed to Hollywood Records for a solo career and in the same year she did her ‘Best of Both Worlds Tour’ which turned into a high earning concert film entitled ‘Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert’. In 2010 Miley Cyrus was ranked number thirteen on ‘Forbes’ celebrity 100.

As Miley turns from a cute and talented child star to a mature and beautiful young adult her path to stardom seems set to continue for many more years yet.

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