Miley Cyrus is a good sport. She doesn’t care that her second album in a row is DOA.

Yet, “Bass Persuades” will have a unique distinction: debuts at number 1 but leading one of the lowest sales weeks in record biz history.

The album sold 61,497 copies — most of them were physical sales, not much streaming.

Miley narrowly edged out Ella Langley, and Riley Green, by about 1,000 albums — although their sales were mostly from streaming.

“Bass Persuades” will only go ‘gold’ if we live long enough.

In a social media message, Miley writes:
“Bass Persuades being #1 transcends a win. This process has been some of the best times for me. Everyone involved made it possible and more importantly fun and memorable.

“Thank you Atlantic, my team, and everyone who walks beside me with conviction. I love you.

“To the fans you make my world go round. Making music for you brings immeasurable joy to my life. Forever.”

It’s weird. If she’d put some work into the promotion, things might have been a lot better.

“Bass Persuades” is now dropping down the charts. Taylor Swift is predicted to return to number 1 Friday with the expanded “Showgirl” album — 150,000 in sales.

Bass Persuades being #1 transcends a win. This process has been some of the best times for me. Everyone involved made it possible and more importantly fun and memorable.

Thank you Atlantic, my team, and everyone who walks beside me with conviction. I love you.

To the fans you… pic.twitter.com/bh8Z0xzosp

— MILEY (@miley) September 29, 2026

Miley Cyrus’s recording career is now officially in free fall.

Her new album, “Bass Persuades,” is a flop. It’s at number 15 now on iTunes, and number 60 on amazon.

If “Bass Persuades” finishes at number 1 for last week, it will be a squeaker. It’s more likely number 2, with less than 60,000 in sales.

This is a blow for Miley because the album is good, and should have done better. But she did not promotion for it. Why wasn’t she on the MTV VMAs last night singing one of the songs? Better yet, why didn’t she do the Dolly Parton tribute? Instead, it was Kacey Musgraves who stepped in.

Miley left Columbia/RCA Records, where she’d been for eons, and moved to Atlantic Records to give “Bass Persuades” a new lease on life. That didn’t work out, and I’m hearing she may move again. She may have to.

Her last album, “Something Beautiful,” which wasn’t as good and didn’t have potential hit singles, did even worse. For that album, Miley entertained private guests at a small recital at the Chateau Marmont. For “Bass Persuades,” she didn’t seem to do anything. She was nowhere to be found on TV last week.

What a shame. There are some good songs on the new album. If someone had worked them, they might have had a life. But no one was persuaded, it wasn’t even all about the bass, and now it’s over.

This is a rarity, but I’m going to call this a correction.

The early numbers for the MTV Video Music Awards were wrong, The show did a lot better than I originally reported.

I had a feeling they would improve — and they did.

The linear number on CBS was actually 7.6 million. Adding in MTV, the total was up over 8.4 million (including the MTV repeat).

That was actually UP 51% from last year and the best in 11 years.

Fans were incensed online that Madonna, who’s 68, won 7 awards for a dance album that was not a hit or relevant to them.

They were also not pleased about the adoration of Taylor Swift, who dropped a video that can only be seen for a fee. She also didn’t even mention her new husband in any of her speeches.

It was clear to the most oblivious viewer that the only people won were those in attendance — and the only ones in attendance knew what they’d won in advance.

The whole show looked arranged and paid for by the winners.

Social media engagement: YouTube videos of various performances and speeches were all less than 400,000 — except for one– Lisa of BLACKPINK. That video of her acceptance speech for Bet Pop (pop what? not defined) has garnered 1 million views since last night.

Also, a closer look at Madonna’s performance indicates either she wasn’t up to the physical challenge (who could blame her?) or had celebrated backstage before not surprisingly winning her awards. She could barely form a coherent sentence.

The whole show was miserable. Imagine the CBS viewer who thought “60 Minutes” followed the football game only to find Madonna and naked dancers writhing, kissing, carrying on to a pre-taped disco nightmare. If they didn’t change channels then, they most surely did soon thereafter.

The VMAs were never a class act. They aren’t the Grammys, to be sure. MTV itself doesn’t exist anymore. No one knows where to see the videos that were nominated. But then to have KPop videos the audience has never seen win awards — come on, no one believed it for a minute.

To make matters worse, a really incoherent Snoop Dogg was not even a host — he was more like a wise cracking usher. He was no guide for the evening, and seemed as out of it as the performers. (Was he high?)

As for sales, Swift still has the top four singles on iTunes. But the album — which all the fans already own — has dropped to number 2. Has Taylor jumped the shark? We’ll see soon.

Flower Power: Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Dolly Parton, George Harrison, More Blossom in Jill Brooke’s Stunning Holiday Book, “Genius of Flowers”

Taylor won two big MTV Video Music Awards tonight.

But her acceptance speeches didn’t thank anyone in her life, including husband Travis Kelce, father Scott Swift (her manager and adviser), or long suffering publicist Tree Paine.

Very odd. Taylor was so focused on introducing her new video (the whole purpose of being there) that nothing else mattered.

She’s laser focused, that’s for sure. She didn’t even mention Cleveland!

| FULL video of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for the Inaugural Artist Director Honors Award pic.twitter.com/NTazx40os7

— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) September 28, 2026

Taylor Swift won’t show you her new video, Patient Zero, for free.

She’s not putting it on YouTube.

Instead, the video that dropped tonight is only available on Spotify, itunes, and Amazon Music. You need a subscription. Taylor must have paid Dakota, Colin Farrell, and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki a fortune. Now she’s got to sort it out.

In the video, Madonna and Dakota Johnson visit a grave, more than the likely the burial site of all pop music.

(This is despite “patient zero” being a popular phrase during the AIDS crisis. But that was so long ago.)

Colin Farrell plays the guy who’s done Dakota/Taylor wrong. How many times was Taylor Swift scorned in real life? The body count is huge. Each of them has gotten at least one song. I think all of them should get together and a make a record about Taylor. Call it Swift Justice. Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Joe Alwyn, Harry Styles, whoever.

Taylor and Madonna split most of the big awards tonight at the MTV Video Music Awards. The show itself is a painful joke. Imagine that CBS has no Kennedy Center Awards this year, but they have this garbage. I thought they were going t say this is what the people who keep going into sewer found down there.

So here’s the Spotify preview of “Patient Zero.”

Let’s cut to the chase.

Tonight, it’s the MTV Video Music Awards at 7:30pm on CBS, MTV, and associated networks.

Madonna is opening the show.

Taylor Swift is getting a lifetime award for most awards there ever.

Madonna also has 13 nominations. Swift has 11.

Also, Taylor is debuting her new video, starring Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson.

The only question is, How will these ladies divide up the spoils?

You have two superstars present, and they have the lions’ share of nominations.

The only award they’re not eligible for is Best New Artist.

Otherwise, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing any of the other nominees hanging around, waiting to lose.

As usual with these shows, except for the Grammys, the fix is in.

The other stars hitting the red carpet aren’t nominees, but various participants in tributes — for Nirvana, Dolly Parton, etc.

Still, it will be fun, to some extent.

Keep refreshing…