“Wrecking Ball”

"Wrecking Ball" is a song recorded by American singer Miley Cyrus for her fourth studio album, Bangerz (2013). It was released on August 25, 2013, by RCA Records as the album's second single. The song was written by Mozella, Stephan Moccio, Sacha Skarbek, with Dr. Luke and Cirkut, who also served as the producers, credited as co-writers along with David Kim. "Wrecking Ball" is a pop ballad which lyrically discusses the deterioration of a relationship. "Wrecking Ball" debuted at number fifty on the Billboard Hot 100, and subsequently became Cyrus' first number-one song on the chart after the release of its controversial music video; it retained the peak position during the following week. Nine weeks later, the track returned to number one, and consequently had the largest gap between number-one sittings in Billboard Hot 100 history within a single chart run. As of January 2014, "Wrecking Ball" has sold three million digital copies in the United States. Outside of the United States, "Wrecking Ball" topped the charts in Canada, Hungary, Israel, Lebanon, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts throughout much of continental Europe and Oceania. It is Cyrus' only song to crack the Billboard Decade-End, doing so at number 99. An accompanying music video for "Wrecking Ball" was released on September 9, 2013. It features close-up scenes of Cyrus tearfully singing, reminiscent of the video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor, interspersed with footage of a nude Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball. Critics were divided in their opinions of the music video, feeling that it was more provocative than the video for her previous single "We Can't Stop". "Wrecking Ball" previously held the Vevo record for the most views in the first 24 hours after its release with 19.3 million views. At the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards, Cyrus took home the award for Best Video and the award for Video of the Year at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. Adding to the video's success, Cyrus won the award for World's Best Video at the 2014 World Music Awards in Monte Carlo. Cyrus performed "Wrecking Ball" during several live performances, including the iHeartRadio Music Festival, an episode of Saturday Night Live and the "TikTok Tailgate" before Super Bowl LV. In 2023, Cyrus re-recorded the song as a duet with American country singer Dolly Parton for her album Rockstar.