Songfacts®:

• Named after the California beach community where Miley Cyrus resides, this is a love song about her fiancé, Liam Hemsworth.
  
  I never would've believed you if three years ago you told me I'd be here writing this song
  But here I am, next to you, the sky so blue, in Malibu
  
  "They're going to talk about me if I come out of a restaurant with Liam," Cyrus explained to Billboard magazine. "So why not put the power back in my relationship and say, 'This is how I feel'?"
  
• Cyrus wrote the song on the way to a taping of The Voice. "I drive myself everywhere, but that day I decided to Uber," she recalled. "I was trying not to sing out loud because someone else was in the car."
• Though on the surface, the song is about Cyrus' blissful life with Liam Hemsworth, she pointed out to Carson Daly on 97.1 AMP Radio that there's a deeper meaning behind the lyrics.
  
  "It's definitely about love. If that's how it is, that's what it is, but it's saying 'you brought me here and I'm happy that you did,'" she explained. "Next, 'cuz now I'm as free as birds catchin' the wind.' Because now, I'm not locked in the Hollywood grid where I can't escape everyone. We had a drone in my freakin' backyard one time because people didn't want to give me any privacy and I can't live like that…and now, I've found this freedom of being able to say – I think people respect my privacy more because I've created boundaries."
• Miley Cyrus told the UK newspaper The Sun about this love song inspired by Hemsworth. "It's about where I am in my life and my relationship. It's just so literal about where we are that it's kind of cool for Liam. Though, he's been the inspiration for many songs."
• Miley Cyrus marked the fourth anniversary of "Malibu" by sharing a video of her recording the song at her old home-recording studio. Her studio, along with the rest of her home, was destroyed in the California wildfires of November 2018. "A song about a place and person that at the time I loved very much," Cyrus reflected in her emotional post. "That love was reciprocated beyond what I could describe here with freedom and escapism."
  
  "I lost that home along with many others in 2018," she added solemnly. "Here is a video of me writing it in my home studio."