"Flowers" is a song by American singer Miley Cyrus from her eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation (2023). Columbia Records released it as the album's lead single on January 12, 2023, in some countries and on January 13 worldwide. Cyrus wrote "Flowers" with Gregory "Aldae" Hein and Michael Pollack, while Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson handled the production. A disco, funk and pop rock song, its lyrics express an ex-lover's acceptance of being independent after no longer feeling the need to rely on someone else to be complete.
"Flowers" received positive reviews from music critics and was a massive commercial success, breaking many records. It was the best-selling global single of 2023, earning 2.7 billion subscription streams equivalents globally, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), making it Cyrus's most successful single worldwide to date. In the United States, the single debuted at number one and spent eight non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in addition to becoming Cyrus's second number-one song on the chart, after "Wrecking Ball" (2013). "Flowers" spent 57 weeks at the top of Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, becoming the longest-running number one-song on any Billboard airplay chart, and earned the most cumulative weeks atop all Billboard airplay charts of all time. The song was also a commercial success worldwide, debuting atop the Billboard Global 200 chart and staying at the summit for thirteen non-consecutive weeks. It topped 60 different charts of over 40 different countries, including in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Singapore, Germany, South Africa, France and the United Kingdom. It also broke a string of records on streaming services, including the Spotify record for the most-streamed song in a week (during both its first and second week), the fastest song in Spotify history to surpass one billion streams (doing so in 112 days), and the fastest female song to surpass two billion streams on Spotify (doing so in 502 days).
Jacob Bixenman directed the music video for "Flowers", which features Cyrus performing dances in several locations, including an outdoor pool, a backyard, and on the roof of her house. Photography took place in Los Angeles with scenes shot at Elysian Park. Cyrus performed the song live on the album's accompanying documentary concert special, Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions), and My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, and at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. At the latter ceremony, "Flowers" won Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, and also received a nomination for Song of the Year, marking Cyrus' career-first set of Grammy wins. Following the song's performance at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, it saw a surge in streaming numbers and sales and returned to the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2024. The song also won Best International Song at the Brit Awards 2024.
Production and release "Flowers" was written by Miley Cyrus, Gregory "Aldae" Hein, and Michael Pollack in January 2022 in Sunset Sound Recorders studio in Hollywood, California. During a week of sessions, with the composers gathered around a piano, the song came together as a ballad, originally with a "slower and sadder" feel, according to Pollack. He said: "We started with the chorus and, if I remember correctly, the lyric, melody, and progression started to form simultaneously. It's one of those 'circle of fifths's songs where the melody informs the progression and vice versa. It practically wrote itself." The initial demo version of the song was a stripped-back ballad, only consisting of Cyrus singing and Pollack playing the Rhodes piano. Then it evolved into the uptempo song. Its final version was produced by Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon.
On December 31, 2022, while hosting her NBC live special Miley's New Year's Eve Party, Cyrus announced "Flowers" would be released simultaneously in all markets on January 13, 2023. The song was released on January 13 at UTC+00:00, which was still January 12 in some parts of the world. The demo version of the song was released digitally on March 3, 2023. It was also included on the digital version of Endless Summer Vacation album.
Composition
"Flowers" is a disco, funk and pop rock song, with a moderate tempo of 118 beats per minute. Anna Gaca of Pitchfork described it as a "twangy" disco funk song with a string section reminiscent of flamenco. Gabrielle Sanchez of Yahoo! said, "A funky bassline guides the song, paired with a swooning string line and fizzy cymbals". Mary Siroky of Consequence thought that Cyrus's "raspy vocals offer an edge to the disco-toned anthem" and that the song interpolates Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" (1978). She further opined that "Flowers" sounds like "if the hazy, peaceful California tone of 'Malibu' were to be applied to a dance pop track". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted its "shimmering electric guitar and understated yacht-rock mood," comparing it to Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours.
Gabrielle Sanchez of Yahoo! called "Flowers" "a spunky track about flaunting one's self-reliance and independence, no longer depending on someone else to feel complete". Anna Gaca from Pitchfork described it as a "revenge anthem". Mary Siroky of Consequence felt that Cyrus is "embracing her story as her own, stepping into her autonomy in a fully realized way". Dale Maplethorpe of Gigwise felt that "the theme of the song is self-love and acceptance". Jason Lipshutz of Billboard compared the song to Cyrus's 2019 single "Slide Away", adding that "Flowers" "focuses far more on self-sustainability than revenge, trading the melancholy of a song like ... 'Slide Away' for a more assertive outlook".
The song's chorus is allegedly a paraphrase of Bruno Mars's "When I Was Your Man" (2012). Editors of Billboard noted that the songs only feature similar lyrical elements and ideas, meaning that the writers of "When I Was Your Man" are not required to be credited as co-writers of "Flowers". Following its release, several publications suggested that "Flowers" was supposed to be a response song directed at Cyrus's ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, as it was released on Hemsworth's birthday and the lyrics refer to their Malibu, California, home which burned down in the November 2018 Woolsey Fire. Additionally, Hemsworth had reportedly dedicated "When I Was Your Man" to Cyrus.
Critical reception +Critics' year-end rankings of "Flowers"PublicationRank BBC8 Billboard 4 Entertainment Weekly 5 The Guardian 17 New York Post 2 PopBuzz 6 Rolling Stone 12 South China Morning Post5 "Flowers" received favorable reviews from music critics, with many complimenting Cyrus' vocal delivery. According to Billboards Jason Lipshutz, the single is not a "full-blown reinvention" for Cyrus, but "sturdy, hummable pop, and it captivates without bells or whistles." The New York Times Lindsay Zoladz described the song as "breezy" and opined that "the relatively subdued chorus melody may not demand much of Cyrus, but her vocals are imbued with a laid-back maturity and convincing self-assurance". Consequences Mary Siroky was appreciative of the song and Cyrus, writing that the singer "has played with genre extensively throughout her career, and it's probably because her voice just sounds good in every single one of them." She went on to add to the praise, stating that "once the chorus [in 'Flowers'] hits, she arrives at the conclusion that everything is going to be okay, and there's even a strong chance she'll be better off going forward: 'I can take myself dancing/ And I can hold my own hand/ Yeah, I can love me better than you can'." She also gave the song their "Song of the Week" status. The Daily Telegraph Neil McCormick called it "sophisticated perfection."
Dale Maplethorpe of Gigwise felt that Cyrus's "incredibly recognizable voice [chimes] in and [sounds] fantastic" and noted that in the chorus "we hear a funky bassline and killer drums that don't leave the listener with much else to do other than bust a move". However, he felt that the song "does feel like it doesn't build as much as it could do" and "is lacking in the big finish that it seems to tease". Writing for Pitchfork, Anna Gaca described the single as "generic", and Cyrus's vocal delivery as "sincerely unbothered". Gaca further negatively compared the song to "Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53", stating that "calling it revenge is a reach, not when Shakira is ready to call you a Twingo: What we're really dealing with here is self-help", implying that the latter addressed the revenge topic in a better way.
Commercial performance Upon its release, "Flowers" broke several records on Spotify. The song earned over 7.7 million plays in its first 24 hours on Spotify globally. On January 20, 2023, it achieved the second-highest single-day streams for a non-seasonal song, and fourth-highest overall, at the time, garnering over 18.4 million global plays on the streaming service.
During its first full seven days (January 13–20, 2023) the song earned 96,032,624 plays on Spotify globally, becoming the biggest week for a song in the platform's history (previously the record was held by Adele's "Easy on Me" with over 85 million streams). In the next seven days (January 21–27, 2023) it earned 115,156,896 plays, breaking the record again. It also became the fastest song to cross 100 million plays on Spotify globally (seven days), breaking the record previously held by BTS's "Butter" in eight days. Jana Coffey, Spotify's artist and label partnerships leader, noted that the popularity of "Flowers" had been growing day-after-day while streaming numbers for other record-breaking songs were the largest on their first days and then declined throughout the week. On May 4, 2023, it became the fastest song to earn 1 billion plays on Spotify globally (112 days), surpassing the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber's "Stay" (2021) and Harry Styles's "As It Was" (2022) (both 118 days).
"Flowers" debuted atop the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US charts, becoming Cyrus's first number-one single on both charts since their launch in September 2020. It topped both global charts for thirteen non-consecutive weeks, tying with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" as the second longest-running number-one on the Global 200, and with Harry Styles's "As It Was" (2022) as the longest-running number one on the Global Excl. US, respectively. During its first three weeks it gained 179.1, 217.1 and 185.6 million streams worldwide consecutively, which became the fifth, second and fourth biggest weeks ever for a song in the Billboard Global 200's history. It also became the second song in the chart's history to gain over 100 million global streams for at least eight weeks, after the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber's "Stay" in 2021. On the issue dated July 8, 2023, it returned to the number one on the Global 200 after a 10-week break, which was the longest gap in the chart's history, excluding "All I Want for Christmas Is You". It topped the 2023 year-end Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts.
According to Luminate, "Flowers" earned 1.16billion streams worldwide until March 31, 2023, making it the most streamed song of the first quarter of 2023. It was the most-streamed song on Spotify and Deezer and second most-streamed on Apple Music globally in 2023.
"Flowers" was the best-selling global single of 2023, earning 2.70 billion subscription streams equivalents globally, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). It won the IFPI Global Single Award of 2023, becoming Cyrus' first appearance on an IFPI annual global Top 10 chart.
It ranked 16th in the 2024 year-end Global 200 chart.
North America