• Mar 24, 2006 - Jan 16, 2011
• On the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus plays Miley Stewart, a seemingly average teenage girl who actually has a secret identity as a famous pop star named Hannah Montana. The show spawned a number of hits that were sung by Cyrus but attributed to her fictional alter-ego, beginning with the theme song "The Best Of Both Worlds," which peaked at #92 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hannah's success translated into a solo career for Cyrus, with the Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (2007) pulling double duty as a soundtrack and a debut album.
• Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana share some of the same family members. Cyrus' dad, "Achy Breaky Heart" singer Billy Ray Cyrus, plays Hannah's father, Robby Ray. Her real-life godmother, Dolly Parton, portrays Hannah's godmother, whom they both affectionately call Aunt Dolly.
• Peaking at #10, "He Could Be the One" was Hannah Montana's biggest hit.
• As a teenager, Lainey Wilson worked children's birthday parties as a Hannah Montana impersonator. She and Miley Cyrus later became friends, and in 2026 they teamed up to duet on "Younger You," a song from the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special.
• Most of the show's episode titles are riffs on famous songs, with season 1 referencing Rick James' "Super Freak" on "She's A Supersneak," Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson's "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" on "Grandmas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Play Favorites," the Eagles' "Witchy Woman" on "Ooh, Ooh, Itchy Woman," and Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" on "You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Zit Is About You."
• Hannah Montana was a pop star in a fictional world, but she still got to perform with some real-life superstar acts, including Sheryl Crow, who appeared in the season 4 episode "It's The End Of The Jake As We Know It."
• The success of Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus ushered in a new era of Disney stars turned pop singers, including The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, and Selena Gomez - with a few of them getting a career boost by appearing on the series. Gomez played Mikayla Skeech, a friend of Miley Stewart's who hates Hannah Montana, on season 2's "I Want You to Want Me…to Go to Florida" in 2007, the same year her own series Wizards Of Waverly Place premiered on the Disney Channel. The Jonas Brothers also appeared on season 2 as themselves in the episode "Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas." The following year, they starred in the network's popular musical Camp Rock.
• In 2007, Hannah Montana embarked on her first real-life tour, The Best Of Both Worlds Tour, with The Jonas Brothers as her opening act. Miley Cyrus performed the first half of the show as Hannah and the second half as herself.
• The season 3 episode "Cheat It" (a spin on Michael Jackson's "Beat It") features Phoebe Snow as a teacher who catches Miley Stewart's brother cheating on a test. Snow was a famous singer-songwriter known for her '70s songs "Poetry Man" and "Harpo's Blues," as well as guest vocals on Paul Simon's "Gone At Last." She was also the voice behind several commercial jingles and sang the original theme song to A Different World during the sitcom's first season from 1987-1988.
• Hannah Montana also got her own movie, aptly titled Hannah Montana: The Movie, in 2009. Taylor Swift guest-starred as herself, singing the country ballad "Crazier," and wrote the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" as Hannah's closing number in the film. Cyrus (credited as Hannah Montana) had a minor hit with the single version, which peaked at #81 on the Hot 100.
• Chappell Roan is a self-proclaimed Hannah Montana superfan and appeared on the show's 20th anniversary retrospective in 2026. Roan, who presented Cyrus with the Disney Legend Award, said Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds Tour was the first concert she ever attended.

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