Miley Cyrus, Macklemore rock Z100 Jingle Ball

It’s easy to see why Miley Cyrus was the belle of Z100’s Jingle Ball Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

It wasn’t because she twerked with Santa – though she did. It wasn’t her dance with a woman dressed as a Christmas tree. Or her regular rump-shaking dances.

No, Cyrus succeeded in getting the mostly teenaged crowd to shriek at One Direction-like volumes because she is trying to represent her fans – their rebellion, their experimentation, their beliefs. And Friday night, she did a pretty good job.
Cyrus, who was introduced by Lindsay Lohan, who congratulated Cyrus for being herself, was in fine voice, especially on “Wrecking Ball,” where she nailed notes even higher than in her original with impressive strength. Clearly, she’s been working on her voice as well as her dance moves.

It’s also no accident that the biggest roar in her set came during “We Can’t Stop,” when she declares, “It's our party we can do what we want… We can love who we want. We can kiss who we want.”

Their performance of “Same Love,” which included special guests Tegan and Sara, as well as the song’s original singer Mary Lambert, was basically a sing-along, as the crowd rapped along with Macklemore. The Seattle hip-hop duo’s set boasted the highest energy of the evening, during their closer “Can’t Hold Us,” which was no small feat considering how Paramore lit up the stage immediately before them.

The charm of Z100’s Jingle Ball, which will air on the CW on Wednesday, is that all the performers get, more or less, 15 minutes to make their best pitch to the fans. Jason Derulo chose to use his time to cram bits of a dizzying eight songs into 10 minutes. Paramore, on the other hand, decided to give a chunk of their set to a fan who joined the band to sing “Misery Business” with them. They then added a gospel choir for their new single “Ain’t It Fun,” which made another lasting impression, as did the charming rocker “Still Into You.”

SEE PHOTOSRock stars then and now