Miley Cyrus, Goddaughter of Dolly Parton, Is Her “Own Fairy Godmother” on The Tonight Show
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Cyrus played the Parton to Fallon’s Kenny Rogers—and the family resemblance has never been stronger.
Dolly Parton, country music legend and theme park mogul, is the godmother of Miley Cyrus. The family resemblance was never more striking than during Wednesday night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, during which Cyrus stepped onto the stage in a vertiginously tall blonde wig and a black wrap dress (and, it appeared, a bit of padding inspired by Parton’s hourglass silhouette) to play a cover of her godmother’s song “Islands in the Stream.” And, playing the Kenny Rogers to Cyrus’s Dolly Parton was the host himself, Jimmy Fallon, looking like Donald Sutherland in a silver wig and beard. (Later in the show, rounding out the classic songstress act, she covered Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”
“Being my own fairy godmother today,” Cyrus wrote in a boomerang she posted to Twitter. It’s not the first time Cyrus has channeled her godmother: She has covered “Jolene” both with Fallon and with Parton herself, and she recruited Parton for a duet on her new album, Younger Now.
Instead of installing herself for an extended residency in Vegas à la Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, or Mariah Carey, Cyrus is in the middle of a week-long residency over at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—and she has truly been making the most of it.
Cyrus opened the show Monday with a cover of Dido’s “No Freedom” with Adam Sandler, a somber tribute to the previous night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas; then, on Tuesday, she played a cut off her latest record before joining the rest of her family—Tish, Brandi, younger sister Noah, who recently embarked on tour with Katy Perry—to face off against the cast of Riverdale in a game of “search party.” On Wednesday, the same night she channeled her godmother on stage, she also met former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, writing her a thank-you note sitting at Fallon’s desk while the one-time secretary of state looked on. (They also hugged, leading Cyrus to write on Twitter, “I got my hug!!!!”) Next week, young Noah Cyrus will take her turn on the stage of The Tonight Show—a fitting continuation of Cyrus week, extended family and all.
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