When you absolutely, positively have to rock the heck out of a place, Miley Cyrus and Billy Idol are just the duo to do it! The dynamic duo teamed up for a hectic Super Bowl performance, but they sure weren’t playing “Party in the USA.” Instead, Cyrus was keen to match Idol’s punk rock energy and dueted with the English icon on his classic “White Wedding.” Idol’s bandmate Steve Stevens laid down the lead guitar, and also helped the duo rework Cyrus’s pop song “Night Crawling” into Idol’s hard-rocking style.
Although she made her name as a pop star, you can tell that Cyrus really loves rocking out in front of a band like this. Idol was 66 years old at the time, but he was more than up to the task of keeping up with the 29-year-old Cyrus as she entertained the crowd. The pair have teamed up for several hype performances at this point, and it probably won’t surprise The Music Man readers to hear they clearly had a rollicking good time together on stage at the Super Bowl preshow.
Cyrus headlined the TikTok Tailgate Super Bowl pre-show on February 7, 2021, and invited Idol and Stevens to play on two songs. Many fans suggested below the video that it was high time Cyrus had her own Super Bowl halftime show. Other viewers praised the duet with comments like “The chemistry between Miley and Billy Idol is indescribable. Period” and “Billy Idol and Miley Cyrus was the duo I never knew I needed until now.”
It turns out that Cyrus inviting Idol to her Super Bowl preshow was returning a favor. Idol had previously hosted Cyrus during his set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2016. The pair teamed up for a molten version of Idol’s 1983 hit “Rebel Yell.” You can’t help but smile watching Cyrus and Idol on stage together, as they work off each other’s energy so well. What else can you expect when you put two such natural-born entertainers together?
Idol released “White Wedding” in October 1982 as the second single from his self-titled debut studio album. The song was a minor hit for the English singer in the US, peaking at number 36, and it also hit the top 10 in Australia and New Zealand. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that despite its modest chart performance, “White Wedding” has become a certified Idol classic over the years. It’s currently Idol’s third-most streamed song on Spotify with 330 million streams and is also a regular fixture in his live sets.