Warning: This article gets NSFW. Don't hate; she's just being Miley!
It's been a bad year for Miley haters. Billy Ray's daughter bounced back from a surprisingly low-key 2014 to dip her tentacles in every corner of pop culture this year - and as she embarked on a mission to change the way we look at sexuality, shedding most of her clothes along the way, it's fair to say we learned a lot more than 7 things about Miley.
Let's rewind all the way back to January and run through everything Miley did in 2015 that proved that this Southern belle really can't be tamed.
January
Like any party animal, Miley understands the art of pacing herself, and she began 2015 pretty quietly. Karaoke with boyfriend Patrick Schwarzenegger at LA's Blind Dragon was about as crazy as it got in January.
February
Miley's short film Tongue Tied was pulled from the first annual NYC Porn Film Festival.
A collaboration with Quentin Jones, Tongue Tied is a short intended to "strip away Miley's cartoonish persona", and though it may be art, the organizers of the festival submitted the film without Miley's approval. That's so not cool.
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Also this month, Miley and Patrick proclaimed their love on Valentine's Day.
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A photo posted by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus) on
Feb 13, 2015 at 11:36pm PST
March
After pictures of Patrick partying with non-Mileyish ladies leaked on the internet, Miley picked herself up by throwing a party of her own at SXSW, with Mike Will Made-It, a plastic gun, a ton of glitter... and that other thing that characterizes SXSW. You know what I'm talkin' bout.
Woulda killed to have been a fly on the wall backstage...
April
After a brief reunion, Miley and Schwarzenegger Jr. officially split in April, but whilst the real MC lay low, Anne Hathaway was bringing the surreal on Lip Sync Battle...
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Yes, that is La Hath doing her best Wrecking Ball for her Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt's entertainment. Do ya thang, Anne.
May
With a little help from rock legend Joan Jett, as well as non-rock non-legend Ariana Grande, Miley performed live in a very intimate venue: her own back yard.
The Backyard Sessions were uploaded to Facebook with an option to donate to the Happy Hippie Foundation, a non-profit designed to fight for the rights of homeless and LGBT*Q youth. Say what you want about Miley, but this girl's heart is made of solid gold.
June
Moved by Caitlyn Jenner's transition, Miley used the annual amfAR gala, which raises money for AIDS research, to auction off three colorful, hand-decorated, framed and signed copies of Caitlyn's Vanity Fair cover...
Appropriately, they went for a total of $69,000.
And in typical Miley fashion, she generated a few headlines by proudly displaying her bushy armpits, because feminism doesn't have to mean tidying up those body parts guys find gross.
Also in June, Paper Magazine came calling and Miley duly took off her clothes.
You can revisit the full shoot here.
July
Miley spent most of July prepping for her big VMAs hosting gig, but she did take the time to film A Very Murray Christmas, Bill Murray's festive Netflix special, and Bill was quite overwhelmed by the experience...
"She’s a hoot. She’s a real pro — what a trooper she was. Someone who may remain nameless didn’t show, so we had to sort of scramble a little bit. People say ’Miley Cyrus, she can’t sing, it’s all auto-tune.’ There’s no auto-tune. I was like, ’that’s no auto-tune, that’s crazy.’ She has real power on the top. She’s got a big box. She really has a lot of power.”
Of course, true Miley fans have known that for years... but we'll give you a free pass, Bill.
August
August was the big one. Miley threw a one-two punch by hosting the VMAs and using the occasion to launch her new album, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, a free album that cost a tiny $50k to record and was made mostly with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.
But if Miley's outfits during the ceremony were crazy enough...
They had nothing on the epic shade bomb Nicki Minaj dropped with her infamous "Miley, what's good?"...
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Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz also demonstrated her intent on taking a left swerve away from commercial pop and making a record more sonically daring than anyone would expect from her. Check out Space Boots and 1 Sun.
September
The post-VMA hangover can linger a while, which might explain why September was a quiet one for Miley, who kept her head down prepping for her Saturday Night Live hosting gig.
The press continued to debate whether Dead Petz was art or trash, and one song got all the attention: Pablow the Blowfish, a heartfelt tribute to a dead blowfish. Miley may only have owned Pablow for one week before his aquatic heart gave out, but she still sheds some super-convincing tears for him on the track.
October
Performing Karen Don't Be Sad on SNL, Miley cried for all her dead petz, and it was surprisingly touching. She also joked that being on a 7 second swear delay is no big deal when your weed intake means you're always on a 7 second delay.
Classic Miley.
November
In her fearless endeavor to strip away all the taboos that surrounds female sexuality, Miley stripped totally naked for Paper Magazine in November, and the results looked a lot like this...
Everybody's (ie. nobody's) favorite photographer Terry Richardson was behind the shoot, which literally broke the Internet for about seven minutes. Nobody could quite decide if Miley had gone too far or if the photoshoot was just another expression of liberation from the new face of feminism.
December
To end on a wholesome note, Miley's most notable antic so far this December has been her appearance on A Very Murray Christmas on Netflix in which she sings with Bill and George Clooney, before giving a fantastic, very soulful rendition of the festive classic Silent Night. Check it out...
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And that was a year in the life of Miley Cyrus. However you feel about her, the truth is we can't stop, and we won't stop talking about Miley. Nobody else grabs headlines quite like the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana.
Bring on 2016...