Miley Takes On The Beatles... And The Flaming Lips

Sunday night's Billboard Music Awards brought us a gift that is both one of my favorite and least favorite thing about award shows: a performance from Miley Cyrus. And while, this time around, we didn't get to see her twerking on Robin Thicke (and then, subsequently ending his marriage), we did get to see her take on a Beatles classic alongside music legends (and her new collab buddies) The Flaming Lips. Cyrus was in the sky with diamonds tonight — with, naturally, a performance of "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" — and this could have gone absolutely amazing or go totally haywire. Lucky for us, Cyrus was back in tip-top shape after feeling a little under the weather after a freak allergic reaction to her antibiotics — and she's at her best when she's performing cover songs. "Jolene," anyone?

I felt a little jipped that Cyrus wasn't actually at the Billboards, but it would have been too much to ask her to come back across the pond from her European tour for one measly performance. Instead, we got to see her live from her Bangerz tour in the UK, where she and the Flaming Lips dressed in crazy tinsel outfits and confused the hell out of all of us watching at home. When Cyrus settled on performing a Beatles song, it's kind of perfect that she chose a song rumored to be about LSD — even though it's not actually about LSD. (It's about a drawing by John Lennon's son, Julian.) And, um, I definitely felt like I was on drugs watching that performance go down.

It's not like this was the first time Cyrus dressed in bird chic, although her fashion efforts in the "Can't Be Tamed" music video were far more impressive. Other than the mass amounts of confetti, rockstars, and pretty solid vocals, Cyrus's performance was a lot more boring than what we're used to seeing from her at award shows. Dare I say I almost missed the twerking midgets? But there were plenty of the other Cyrus hallmarks... like her ever present tongue. Also present: her bare feet.

All in all? That was one trippy experience. But, hey, she's just being Miley.