Miley Cyrus knows how to take a song and make it her own and her raunchy take on Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” at Glastonbury is absolutely no exception. The late Winehouse played the same song at Glastonbury during her legendary set in 2007, so Cyrus pulling it out at the same event definitely felt like a tribute to the soul icon.
Mark Ronson, who co-wrote the song with Winehouse, sat in with the band for the song, which added an extra note of poignancy to the performance. Cyrus meanwhile really vamped up the sex appeal for the show in skin-tight leather pants while delivering a heartfelt and faithful vocal on the modern soul classic. You can hear it for yourself below.
Winehouse tended to really lean in hard to the dark nature of the love gone bad tale when singing “Back to Black”, while Cyrus focused more on putting on a show and hitting the notes. While no one can sing it quite like Winehouse, Cyrus certainly did the song justice and showed she had the vocal chops to pull it off. This is even more impressive as only a few months after her Glastonbury appearance, she would undergo vocal surgery for Reinke’s edema, which was required to save her voice.
Cyrus and Ronson have shared the stage many times, as the pair co-wrote and recorded Ronson’s 2018 single “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”. They subsequently performed together numerous times to promote the song, as well as working together on Cyrus’s powerful cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. Check out their work on the Lennon tune below, which also featured the late rocker’s son Sean Ono Lennon.
Fans loved to hear Cyrus take on the Winehouse classic at the show, adding comments such as “Of course no one can defeat the incredible Amy Winehouse but Miley’s take on this is really good,” and “It’s heartwarming to see artists like Miley covering Amy Winehouse. It’s such a good way to remember her and honor her.”
“Back to Black” is Winehouse’s biggest hit, having gone 2x Platinum in the UK and Platinum in the US. The song is also by far her most streamed song on Spotify, with 839 million streams clocked. The tune has continued to inspire big name musicians since its 2007 release, with artists such as Beyonce, Andre 3000, Måneskin and Sam Fender covering it, as well as countless hopefuls on television talent shows.
Winehouse wrote “Back to Black” about her relationship with her husband at the time Blake Fielder-Civil, which is a theme that runs throughout the album of the same name. She outlined the meaning of the song in a CNN interview shortly after its release, saying it is “about being in a relationship that when it’s finished you go back to what you know, except I wasn’t working so I couldn’t go and throw myself back into work.
“And where the guy obviously went back to his ex-girlfriend, I didn’t really have anything else to go back to so I guess I went back to a black for a few months, you know, doing silly things, as you do when you’re 22 and you’re young and in love.” If you would like to see more from Miley Cyrus, you can subscribe to their YouTube channel or follow them on Instagram.