Miley Cyrus says “Flowers” was almost “the saddest song”

In a new cover story with British Vogue, Miley Cyrus says her empowering hit song “Flowers” almost had a much sadder tone.

“I wrote it in a really different way,” she says. “The chorus was originally: ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can.’ It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better.’”

Ultimately, she decided on self-love. “The song is a little fake it till you make it,” she says. “Which I’m a big fan of.”

“Flowers” was the first single from Miley’s current album, Endless Summer Vacation. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight weeks and became the fastest song to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify. Miley says she sensed “Flowers” would be a hit, but she’s also aware of how fickle the industry can be, so she took the song’s popularity in stride.

“I was like, ‘No. I might be number one now, but number two is on its way.’ Everything is seasonal,” she says, adding, “That’s not pessimistic. That’s honest and that’s OK with me. I actually prefer it. I don’t like to stay big.”

See the full feature in the June issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands Tuesday, May 23.