Miley Cyrus

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Lore & Background

The collaboration between Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa on "Prisoner" was not the first song they worked on together. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Cyrus said they had worked on other songs together in the past and praised Lipa: 'For her and I, there's just no competition. That changes just everything. There's a true partnership. Then I also liked that it wasn't the first song we'd cut together. We actually cut other songs. She wanted to keep going until it was right, until we found the one that honors our individuality.'

In 2025, Cyrus revealed on the Every Single Album podcast that the collaboration wasn't her idea, adding the song 'isn't cohesive with the album'. Cyrus said Lipa's involvement was at the insistence of her record label at the time, who she claims was not pleased with the direction of the album. She felt a Lipa collaboration would have been more appropriate for her follow-up album, Endless Summer Vacation (2023). The music video features the singers driving a tour bus and draws references to the films The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Female Trouble. The song draws influence from and references Olivia Newton-John's 1981 single 'Physical'. Earlier in 2020, the track was already sampled by Dua Lipa in her own song, also called 'Physical'.

In Their Own Story

The song was released on November 19, 2020, through RCA Records as the second single from Cyrus' seventh studio album Plastic Hearts (2020). Cyrus began teasing the single in a series of tweets where she confirmed its release and posted videos of her fans reacting to its music video. Cyrus and Lipa announced the release of the song on November 18, 2020. "Prisoner" reached number one in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Malta, the top ten in ten additional countries, and the top forty in nineteen additional countries. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Global 200 and number 54 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by the two singers alongside Andrew Wotman, Jordan K. Johnson, Marcus Lomax, Stefan Johnson, Ali Tamposi, Jonathan Bellion, Michael Pollack with production from Andrew Watt and The Monsters & Strangerz. Cyrus described "Prisoner" as a perfect blend of her and Lipa's styles. As the song was released during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cyrus felt that it also reflects being in quarantine: 'I mean, in a way... I feel too, I mean, we're just trapped in our emotions right now. I mean, really me, there's no escaping it.'

Reader's Guide

To understand "Prisoner", listen for its dark pop, disco-punk, disco-rock, glam rock and nu-disco sound. The song has a length of two minutes and forty nine seconds, composed in the key of E♭ minor with a moderately-fast tempo of 126–132 beats per minute. Cyrus' and Lipa's vocals range from the low note of B♭3 to the high note of C♯5. The lyrics relate to angst inspired by isolation feelings and were described by critics as a 'heartache anthem' and a 'glam declaration of independence'. The verse 'I try to replace it with the city lights' is an allusion to Cyrus' 2019 song 'Slide Away', about her separation from then-husband Liam Hemsworth. Another reference can be found in the pre-chorus where she sings 'You keep making it harder to stay', which is a contrast to the lyrics to her 2010 song 'Stay'. Critics gave the song mostly positive reviews. Ali Shutler of NME gave it five out of five stars, calling it 'a disco-punk anthem that goes off like a cherry bomb'. However, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis compared it unfavorably to its music video, opining it is 'far less interesting than its blood-spattered, spider-eating, John Waters-quoting video'. The song was engineered at Gold Tooth Music in Los Angeles and Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California.

Did You Know?

• The music video draws references to the films The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Female Trouble.
• The song was included on the re-issue of Lipa's second studio album Future Nostalgia: The Moonlight Edition (2021).
• Cyrus revealed in 2025 that the collaboration wasn't her idea and was at the insistence of her record label.
• The verse 'I try to replace it with the city lights' is an allusion to Cyrus' 2019 song 'Slide Away'.
• The song was produced by Andrew Watt and the Monsters & Strangerz.