Miley Cyrus’ New Song Brings Up Her Feud With Nicki Minaj Out Of Nowhere

Miley Cyrus’ new song is causing some controversy.

Cyrus took to the stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Middlesboroughon Saturday, where she performed a slate of past hits, including a duet of “We Can’t Stop” with Charli XCX, and debuted three new songs from an upcoming project set to be released next week: “Mother’s Daughter,” “Dream,” and “Cattitude.”

Turns out “Cattitude” very much lived up to its name when Cyrus appeared to offer her take on one of the most polarising feuds of the last year, singing, “I love you Nicki, but I listen to Cardi.”

Cue the internet — and the memes. In the day since her performance, fans have taken to playfully dragging Cyrus online, posting versions of the lyric such as, “i love you @MileyCyrus but i listen to @BTS_twt,” or “i love you hannah but i listen to mikaila” (a deep cut from Cyrus’ Hannah Montana days). Cyrus was game to go along with it herself, posting several images captioned, “I love you me but I listen to Ari” and “I love you Miley but I listen to Hannah...”

Could this possibly reignite tensions between Minaj and Cyrus themselves? Minaj’s Barbz fanbase has already taken over Cyrus’ Instagram comments and Twitter mentions, but Minaj herself has yet to comment on the lyrics. (Cardi B has also been mum on the matter.) Still, while the memory of Minaj and Cardi’s infamous skirmish during New York Fashion Week remains fresh, this also brings to mind Cyrus’ feud with Minaj back in 2015.

After being snubbed for a Video of the Year nomination for “Anaconda” for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Minaj aired her grievances via social media — which Cyrus, who was hosting the awards, commented about in a New York Times profile. Minaj made her feelings about that very publicly known during the actual VMAs ceremony, wrapping up her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop Video by calling Cyrus out directly: “Back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press,” she said, adding a now-iconic line that just might have taken on a newfound relevance in 2019, “Miley, what’s good?”

It’s a curious choice to reference this feud in her song. There aren’t a lot of women in music — so why must they be pitted against each other? And why is Miley involved at all?