Miley Cyrus' Malibu Home Inspired Her “Avatar: Fire and Ash” Song: 'I've Had My Own Experience with Rebuilding' (Exclusive)
- - Miley Cyrus' Malibu Home Inspired Her “Avatar: Fire and Ash” Song: 'I've Had My Own Experience with Rebuilding' (Exclusive)
Jack SmartJanuary 1, 2026 at 1:30 AM
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Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Miley Cyrus at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' on Dec. 1 -
Miley Cyrus tells PEOPLE about writing the new song “Dream as One” for Avatar: Fire and Ash
“I've had my own experience with rebuilding from the ground up,” says the musician, who lost her Malibu home to wildfire in 2018
Inspired by her Los Angeles community, Cyrus wrote about “the resilience and courage that it takes to start again,” she explains
Miley Cyrus sings about resilience, love and coming together as community in the song she wrote for Avatar: Fire and Ash. As she tells PEOPLE, it all came from a personal place.
“In the title alone, Fire and Ash, I've had my own experience with rebuilding from the ground up,” says Cyrus, 33, who has rebuilt the Malibu home she lost to wildfires in 2018.
The Grammy winner’s new tune, “Dream as One,” plays during the credits of writer-director James Cameron’s third Avatar film, out now.
“I felt after we experienced the fires this year,” she adds, referencing the January 2025 wildfires that devastated Los Angeles’ Palisades and Altadena communities, “lately we've all had this idea of being there for each other and stepping in when your people need it.”
That goes for “not just your family, but your chosen family as well,” explains Cyrus, whose engagement to Maxx Morando went public Dec. 1. “And the resilience and courage that it takes to start again. And somehow finding that all you really need is each other.”
The Miley Cyrus Foundation/Instagram
Miley Cyrus' home via Instagram
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During a May screening of her visual album Something Beautiful, the former Hannah Montana star called losing the home she shared with ex-husband Liam Hemsworth “the biggest blessing I've ever had in my life,” saying, “what I would have told my younger self is to appreciate those darker times … they are only leading you into the light.”
That ability to rise again, Cyrus tells PEOPLE, is what Avatar: Fire and Ash “is really about.”
The new movie picks up where Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldaña) Pandora story left off with 2022’s sequel The Way of Water, not long after the death of their eldest child and as a new Na’vi clan rises to threaten their family.
“Usually I work in the reverse order, where I'm writing a song and then creating visuals afterwards,” says Cyrus of her process. “This time around I got to see the film,” she explains.
“I saw it actually in kind of a work-in-progress stage, which was actually more helpful for me because I got to feel like I was really a part of the journey of creating Avatar,” adds the “Flowers” singer. “I came in kind of late, so feeling like I got to be a part of building it — and to design musically and lyrically around what the themes of Fire and Ash are all about.”
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Miley Cyrus at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' on Dec. 1
Cyrus readily admits she’s ready to lend her songwriting prowess to any opportunities in Hollywood to participate in “what really kind of bites in a film,” as she puts it.
“I really feel myself attached to songs. There's certain songs that even if they were written for the film or just a song used in the film, like ‘I Will Always Love You,’ you immediately think of the movie itself and they become embedded.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
