Read Every Word of Miley Cyrus’ Acceptance Speech for Her First-Ever Grammy

Miley Cyrus won the very first Grammy Award of her career: Best Pop Solo Performance for “Flowers”—an honor she wasn’t expecting, but accepted with an awards show speech that was rife with symbolism.

The category was the first one announced of the evening (by Mariah Carey, no less).

Cyrus was particularly starstruck in front of Carey, saying, “I’m gonna stand by this MC for this because this is just too iconic. Oh my God, I just got stuck in the rain and traffic and thought I was gonna miss this moment, and I could have missed the award. That’s fine but not Mariah Carey. I just saw you at the Hollywood Bowl. It was everything I got sat in my lucky number three seat.”

She then used the rest of her speech to share a metaphor that illustrated her feelings about finally winning a Grammy. “And so there’s a story I wanna tell that sums up this moment, and I wasn’t gonna tell it but now Mariah’s here. So there was a little boy that all he wanted for his birthday was a butterfly. And so his parents gave him a butterfly net, and he was so excited. He just went outside out in the sun and started swinging and swinging. But with no luck, he sat down on the ground, he finally let go, and he surrendered, and he was okay that he wasn’t gonna capture this beautiful butterfly. And right when he did is when the butterfly came and landed right on the tip of his nose. And this song ‘Flowers’ is my butterfly. Thank you.”

Watch her speech in full below:

“Flowers” is also up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Cyrus’ album Endless Summer Vacation is up for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. Cyrus and Brandi Carlile also got a nod for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their collaboration, “Thousand Miles.”

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