Miley live: What to expect from her Auckland show

U.S. singer Miley Cyrus. Photo / AP

Ten years ago, Miley Cyrus embarked on her first tour. It was, she agrees, a little less demanding than her current Bangerz production.

"I was the opening act," she remembers. "We had no budget. No one cared I was there and my big entrance was literally from behind a sheet, but it wasn't big enough so my mum sewed two together.

"My big entrance was two dancers dropping it," she laughs.

These days, Cyrus puts on a show that makes a little bit more of a statement. For starters, she arrives on stage by sliding down a giant pink tongue - a reference to that obscene gesture she had a habit of making in public appearances a few months back.

Later on in the show, Cyrus twerks on top of a "car boat", floats above the audience on a giant hot dog, and dances next to an inflatable dog - a tribute to her late pet dog Floyd.

Cyrus promises she'll be bringing the full Bangerz production here when she plays Auckland in October.

But the star says the show has been a work in progress since it kicked off in Vancouver in February.

"It's been changing so quickly - it's still the Bangerz tour but it's going in the kind of direction I've been going over the last few months. Just kind of experimenting with different sounds and new looks. The colours are a bit brighter. The show's been a little dark (but) since we're going to South America and Australia and then New Zealand, it's important to have brighter colours. It makes it more interesting for me because if you're doing the exact same shows it's hard to stay inspired. I'm getting myself reinspired by revamping the show."

But Cyrus promises Bangerz isn't a throwaway pop blast. Though there are plenty of opportunities to party, she says there are some serious messages behind her antics. "The first three songs people are trying to see where the show goes and how deep it goes. We come out on the tongue, there's all this twerking and chicken dancing, and all this crazy shit and a boat car, and then it switches and it goes to this deep connecting place."

Reviews have been positive. The Guardian called her London show in May "so gleefully, dementedly, cartoonishly vulgar that it's almost impossible not to be entertained".

The Telegraph called the same show "hyper-real pop trash".

"Flaunting the highest-cut leotard line seen since Borat and a series of flashy cowboy boots, she could have been the mutant love child of Eminem and her godmother Dolly Parton," their reviewer wrote.

If you're planning on heading along this October, consider yourself warned.

Watch Miley Cyrus' Bangerz live show on YouTube below:

Herald app users tap here to view the video.