Once upon a time, nothing was more popular than Miley Stewart and her pop star alter ego Hannah Montana.
When Disney Channel debuted a sitcom about the average teenage girl who happened to lead a double life as a world-famous pop star at night, the world had never heard of it Miley Cyrus. That changed, however, when Hannah Montana premiered on March 24, 2006 with 5.4 million viewers and earned the cable network the highest ratings in history.
Over the course of four seasons and 98 episodes, tweens everywhere became obsessed with Miley – both Stewart and Cyrus – co-starring her, and to a lesser extent Emily Osment and Mitchell Musso known names.
The series spawned four soundtracks, one for each season, a 3D concert film, and a feature film (each with its own soundtrack), making Miley (the real one) a pop star on par with Hannah’s level of fame. It also helped give her father back Billy Ray Cyrus (who played her father on the series) returned to the spotlight over a decade after he scored a hit with the legendary “Achy Breaky Heart”.
