Miley Cyrus is reflecting on her 2024 Grammy wins and what the accolades meant for her career.

The singer, who in February took home two Grammys for best pop solo performance and record of the year, reflected on the awards 17 years after starting her music career in 2007.

‘No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys?’ Miley pondered during an interview with W Magazine.

‘I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f*** was I?’

She added, ‘And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f*** was I? This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.’

Miley’s 2023 album, Endless Summer Vacation, earned star nominations for album of the year, best pop vocal album, and song of the year, thanks to Flowers.

Despite this being her first Grammys win, the Hannah Montana alum was nominated twice before, once for best pop vocal album in 2015 with Bangerz and again in 2022 for her feature on Lil Nas X’s album Montero.

During this year’s ceremony, Miley turned heads in a cut-out dress sparkly dress and called out the audience for their lack of enthusiasm during her performance of Flowers, saying, ‘Why are you acting like you don’t know this song?’

Looking back at what she had wanted her performance to be, Miley simply stated, ‘a celebration of ­bravery, because I perform out of fear.’

She confessed, ‘I didn’t always have the fear of performing that I have now. But going from spending two years alone and seeing no more than one person a day during lockdown to knowing that millions of people watch the Grammys is a big shock to the nervous system.’

And indeed, it is a feat not many can relate to.

‘Anyone who’s ever put themselves in a position to be observed or judged is brave. It doesn’t matter if it’s eight or 8 million people — that fear is there. Before I went onstage, right as that curtain was about to lift, I was screaming at the top of my lungs, “I am free!”‘

Regardless, Miley was fully prepared to have the best of both worlds while on stage, giving a nod to her younger self in the process.

‘I wrote on this dream board that I wanted to show up to the Grammys with a childlike confidence,’ she explained, ‘like when a kid isn’t scared to just dive into the deep end or do a backflip because they don’t know what’s on the other side.’

‘My 12-year-old self got to come out and play,’ Miley added, ‘while my 31-year-old self was in Bob Mackie with big hair.’

Despite her first wins, the 31-year-old doesn’t view other artists as a threat: ‘Competition is really of no interest to me.’

Although she felt her Grammy wins were a long time coming, the actress doesn’t base her career success on accolades.

‘Competition is really of no interest to me,” she admitted. ‘I don’t think of other artists as opponents. Artists are not the same as athletes, playing a zero-sum game and keeping a score. There isn’t a score in art.’

Miley, who will be honored at this year’s Disney Legends Awards Ceremony in August, will be the youngest honoree to be named a Disney Legend, a title she feels is well deserved.

‘People have 50- or 60-year-long careers, but mine has been close to 20 years, and I’m 31,’ the Malibu artist shared. ‘I have been in the public for more of my life than I haven’t. They say that the creative adult is the child who survived. I worked really hard as a child.’

Miley also acknowledged the sacrifices she had to make as a child star after her big break as her Disney alter ego on Hannah Montana alongside her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, at 13 years old.

‘I didn’t go to prom,’ she recalled. ‘I didn’t go to dances. I didn’t have so much of that social experience or time for friends. Disney, they were doing very well off of the amount of work that I was putting in as a child.’

‘I don’t have any bad feelings about that,’ Miley noted. ‘It’s just the truth. And so I think they have to give me this award.’