Miley Cyrus' Flowers on TikTok: One million videos with lyric breakdowns, memes and dance routines
Miley Cyrus' Number 1 single Flowers has broken music streaming records and been used in more than four million TikTok videos in the first two months of 2023.
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Described as "an ode to self-love" by Grazia magazine, the catchy, upbeat tune has Cyrus singing about getting over a break-up – reportedly with her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth who she divorced at the start of 2020.
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BBC News included it in a piece about "writing a perfect break-up song", alongside Shakira's BZRP Music Sessions #53 "diss track" which is believed to be about her ex Gerard Piqué and has also taken TikTok by storm.
TikTokers were quick to start using Flowers on the day of its release, January 13 (Hemsworth's birthday), making videos about finding it empowering and the "Easter eggs" they'd spotted – hidden surprises planted for listeners and viewers to enjoy.
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There are lots of comparisons with Bruno Mars' hit When I Was Your Man from his 2012 album Unorthodox Jukebox, which Hemsworth allegedly dedicated to Cyrus while they were dating. The choruses of the two songs play out like a conversation, with Mars starting by singing "I could have bought you flowers" and Cyrus replying "I can buy myself flowers", followed by confident assertions about being able to take herself dancing, hold her own hand and "love me better than you can".
People have made their own mini "music videos" – lipsyncing to the song as the camera follows them around, like in this video from @averycyrus from the point of view of someone on holiday with their ex.
Some have even got their pets in on the fun too, like this video from @pugloulou.
StoryPoint Senior Living, who say they're Cyrus' "biggest fans", have done a sweet video with their care home residents acting out different lines from the song. The official TikTok account commented "This is giving me life"; someone else tagged Cyrus and said "these beautiful ladies need a visit".
Lots of Rodger Cleye memes have been popping up, using cutouts of the American TikTok singing sensation's cover of the song to joke about relationhips ahead of Valentine's Day. Cleye went viral on TikTok in 2022 – amassing three million followers in a matter of months after entertaining people with his covers and becoming the subject of countless edits.
Puff Puff the penguin, who has 4 million followers and is known for creating cute and high-pitched versions of pop songs, has rewritten the original, instead singing "I would buy you flowers. I would hold your hand. We could talk for hours if you would be my friend." Their version is being used by people to soundtrack cute videos of their pets.
As is often the case with popular TikTok songs, fun dance routines have been created to Flowers, including by British dance duo Brookie and Jessie who are well-known for starting viral TikTok dance crazes to pop songs like Made You Look by Meghan Trainor and 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) by Lizzo.
An interesting feature of TikTok is the ability to edit sounds on videos that you've posted in the past – @losmenoressnacks have added Flowers to a video that they originally uploaded in May 2021, helping to propel it back onto people's For You Pages. Comments wonder how it's possible that a video from two years ago is using a brand new song.
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There's also a trick on TikTok to upload a video using a trending song but turn the volume down so you can't hear it, in the hope the video will be favoured by TikTok's algorithm – @itsgoneviral's rapping challenge video to Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss technically uses Flowers as the backing track, even though you can't hear the song at all.
Spotting TikTok Trends
Flowers is just one of the new trends picked up and tracked by our Buzz service, which highlights some of the big talking points emerging on TikTok and social media every day.
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Buzz from Shooglebox is used by journalists, creators and brand teams who need to spot and stay on top of the latest trends.
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It includes a constantly updated box of cards showing at a glance and linking to viral videos, TikTok trends and other things going big on social media. Buzz customers also get regular updates alerting them to some of the things they might otherwise miss or discover late.
This stack of cards of TikTok videos using Miley Cyrus' Flowers gives you an idea of how Shooglebox works – and how it could help you go from spotting a trend right at the start to tracking its development over time.
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If you're interested in signing up or finding out more about Buzz get in touch here.
