Miley Cyrus broke down in tears during her first TV performance of “Malibu,” and we totally get it

Things got pretty emotional last night at the Billboard Music Awards when Miley Cyrus performed her new track, “Malibu,” on TV for the first time.

The singer has previously opened up about the song, which she released earlier this month, sharing how it was written about her fiancé Liam Hemsworth. In fact, the cover art for the single was shot by Hemsworth, and the Aussie actor has shown his support for Miley all over his social media.

Miley gave the track its live debut at Wango Tango, where she totally switched up her look, too. All this change reflects her new centered and sober lifestyle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j9zMok6two?feature=oembed

Making her debut TV performance of the song last night in Las Vegas, it seems that Miley Cyrus became a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

Firstly, Miley was introduced to the stage by her baby sister, Noah, and her dad, Billy Ray, which would have been enough to set us off anyway.

Talent sure runs in this family! @noahcyrus and @billyraycyrus introduce #BBMAs performer, @MileyCyrus! #MileyBu pic.twitter.com/kdB4HUBwP4

— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 22, 2017

For her performance, Miley stripped back the production, heightening the track’s country elements. And she served up some pretty stellar vocals, too.

Dressed head-to-toe in white with a cowboy hat, Miley couldn’t resist adding a bunch of balloons to the proceedings. Hey, this is still Miley Cyrus we’re talking about.

#BBMAs #Malibu 🎈🌊💙 https://t.co/qAciiFlJcg pic.twitter.com/fuGq7MouzA

— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) May 22, 2017

It was right at the end of the performance, however, when Miley got emotionally overwhelmed.

As the song drew to a close and things quietened down, the singer actually got choked up, her voice cracking and tears filling in her eyes. In fact, she was so overcome with emotion that she had to partially give up on singing altogether.

We can totally understand why Miley was emotional during her performance. Given that the song is intensely personal to her, it’s safe to say that there would be masses of feelings running all over the place. It must also feel like Quite A Lot to perform the song for the first time on television, especially a track that’s so close to her heart.

Miley wasn’t the only star to get emotional at last night’s #BBMAs. Rising singer-songwriter Julia Michaels performed her hit track “Issues” and, like Ms. Cyrus, became quite tearful as the song drew to a close.

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/866454961491726337

While we can’t know exactly what was making the two performers so emotional, we do appreciate how intensely personal both songs are, and we totally get why performing them could, at times, become overwhelming.

What we do know, however, is that both Julia Michaels and Miley Cyrus absolutely killed their performances.