Another day, another slay from Miley Cyrus. The pop culture icon has been feeding fans with stunning fashion-forward visuals from her upcoming album, Something Beautiful. Her latest release, “End of the World,” is keeping the momentum toward the hypnotic pop opera going thanks to its lighthearted production and moving lyrics.

Before it became a disco dreamscape, the Grammy winner previewed the track as a piano ballad during a private intimate performance at the Chateau Marmont in March 2024. She penned and produced the single alongside Shawn Everett, Michael Pollack, and Jonathan Rado, as well as Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley from indie band Alvvays.

In her official announcement for the song’s release on April 3, Miley’s team wrote, “Reinforcing the project’s immersive, operatic approach, these songs mark the beginning of a carefully structured journey” with each release following the sequence of the album and the film.

As she drops more bangers leading up to Something Beautiful, let’s dive into Miley Cyrus’s “End of the World” lyrics, shall we?

Lyrics provided by Genius
[Intro]
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh

[Verse 1]
Today, you woke up and you told me that you wanted to cry
The sky was fallin’ like a comet on the Fourth of July
Baby, you’ve been thinkin’ ’bout the future like it’s already yours
Show me how you’d hold me if tomorrow wasn’t comin’ for sure

In the first verse, Miley shares a vulnerable moment with her subject. Amid a fear of the unknown, she encourages them that she’s by their side and wants them to embrace the moment as if it’s their last.

According to her intimate preview of the track in March 2024, Miley wrote this song for her mom, Tish Cyrus. Fans speculate that she walked down the aisle to the track at her wedding with Dominic Purcell, as she said Miley sang an “unreleased song” during a September 2023 episode of her podcast, Sorry We’re Cyrus.

[Chorus]
Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh)
Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh)

“End of the World” seems to carry a similar narrative as Miley’s song “Rose Colored Lenses,” which was featured on her 2023 album, Endless Summer Vacation and muses: “Wearin’ rose colored lenses, let’s just play pretend / Wearin’ rose colored lenses, pretend we’ll never end.”

Instead of addressing her relationship potentially ending, she expands her lens on this song and looks at the bigger picture of everything around them.

[Verse 2]
Let’s spend the dollars you’ve been savin’ on a Mercedes-Benz (Ah)
And throw a party like McCartney with some help from my friends
Yeah, let’s go down to Malibu and watch the sun fade out once more
Show me how you’d hold me if tomorrow was comin’ for sure

As the story pans out in her second verse, Miley encourages the subject to go all out by dropping a ton of money and being surrounded by the people they love with a celebration. TL;DR: If the world’s ending, you might as well go out with a bang.

Also, Miley loves making a reference, whether it’s to her past work or ongoing influences. She seemingly calls back to her 2017 track, “Malibu,” and her relationship with the city and also shouts out Paul McCartney and The Beatles’s fan-favorite song, “With A Little Help From My Friends.”

[Chorus]


[Bridge]
Ooh, let’s go to Paris, I don’t care if we get lost in the scene
Paint the city like Picasso would’ve done in his dreams
Do the things that we were way too terrified of before
Oh, I wanna take you to Nirvana, we can’t take it too far
Hit the bottom of the bottle and forget who we are
Hold me close, you know tomorrow isn’t comin’ for sure

She takes a moment on the bridge to let loose and live every day like it’s her last. It’s a juxtaposition between the happiness of being with someone you love while the world is crashing down around you, whether it’s through climate change or the political climate.

Miley lost her home in 2018 in the aftermath of the 2018 Woolsey Fire in California, which probably led to her perspective on the track.

During the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year, she shared a photo from her home once it was destroyed, writing, “It’s a feeling you don’t ever forget. Walking up to the door you would pass through daily, looking forward to being greeted by the ones you love like you always do but instead being met by a pile of ash and rubble.”

[Breakdown]
Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world
Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world
(Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world)
Let’s pretend
It’s not the end
(Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world)
Let’s pretend (The sky is fallin’)
It’s not the end (Like the end of the world)
Let’s pretend
It’s not the end, end, end

[Chorus]