How ‘Wrecking Ball’ Escaped Beyonce To Become Miley Cyrus’ Career-Defining Hit

[TMC]

http://uproxx.com/music/beyonce-wrec...l-miley-cyrus/

In late 2012, rumors swirled that Miley Cyrus had “stolen” a song from Beyonce thanks to mysterious tweets from a songwriter who claimed to have knowledge of the situation. The Bey Hive was furious. The internet was outraged. And this was before the allegedly swiped song had even been identified, much less recorded.

“Beyonce song now becoming a Miley Cyrus song?!!” English songwriter Sacha Skarbek said in a now-deleted tweet. “Good/bad? I don’t know??!!!!”

The fury died down, as it always does, but once “Wrecking Ball” became a certifiable hit (with Skarbek listed as a writer on the track), the controversy re-erupted. Radar Online did some basic digging in early 2014 and slapped one hell of an inflammatory headline (“DOES MILEY CYRUS OWE BEYONCE HER CAREER?”) onto a mostly benign post. It was enough to incite instigatory “content” from other outlets who could benefit from a Bey-Miley feud. Within 24 hours Hollywood Life had projectile vomited a string of erroneous Beyonce-bashing Miley quotes, claiming they’d appear in an upcoming LOVE Magazine cover story. To wit:

LOVE quickly denied the quotes, and HollywoodLife deleted the post once the traffic spike was safely in their Chartbeat rearview.

Song-stealing outrage and fake quotes make for good artificial theatre. But the true story behind “Wrecking Ball” has more nuance and emotion than your typical diva battle, with much of the intrigue generated not by the performers, but by the considerable talent responsible for writing and composing the song.