Miley Cyrus Releases Breakup Song Amid Split With Husband Liam Hemsworth

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth‘s separation might have been reported last weekend, but just days later, the award-winning singer and songwriter released a brand-new song, “Slide Away” on Friday, Aug. 16.

The track is clearly a breakup song, with the 26-year-old describing letting someone “slide away” to let each respective party return to where they came from. Cyrus wrote the song with Alma Miettinen, Michael L Williams II and Andrew Wyatt.

After hearing “Slide Away,” fans are convinced it’s about Cyrus’ separation from her husband.

The lyrics are very likely about the couple’s relationship, especially the chorus, which reads, “So won’t you slide away / back to the ocean / I’ll go back to the city lights.” Fans of the couple know that Hemsworth is an avid surfer, and the duo lived in Malibu, California together. Another telling lyric is when Cyrus sings that she thinks she’s “gonna miss these harbor lights,” a possible allusion to the Sydney Harbour in Hemsworth’s home country of Australia.

Cyrus also references the fact that she’s not 17 anymore, which is the age she was when she and Hemsworth made their red carpet debut as a couple in 2010.

The single artwork features a bottle of alcohol and pills floating in a pool, likely a nod to when Cyrus sings “I want my house in the hills / Don’t want the whiskey and pills / I don’t give up easily but I don’t think I’m down.”

The timing of the release may be a total coincidence, as the singer previously revealed that she would be releasing three EPs in 2019 and could have had the song’s drop already scheduled, or she could have changed her mind and moved something up. There’s also the increasingly likely possibility that “Slide Away” is a brand-new song recorded in the aftermath of the split, since Cyrus shared a photo of herself in the recording studio earlier this week.

Photo Credit: Getty / Dave J Hogan