Miley in the Sky With Diamonds: The Strangest BBMAs Performance of 2014

It was perhaps the oddest, and most awesome, awards-show pairing since, well, Miley Cyrus dueted with an animatronic, weeping cat on last year's AMAs.

In her first television appearance since falling ill and canceling multiple U.S. tour dates last month, Miley Cyrus performed not one of her own hits, but a psychedelic Beatles classic on Sunday night's Billboard Music Awards — accompanied by Oklahoma eccentrics the Flaming Lips, her unlikely new best friends.

Or, should we say, best fwends. The fab performance — pre-taped on May 13 on the Manchester date of Miley's resumed U.K. tour — was of the Fab Four's "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," off the Lips' upcoming Beatles tribute album, With a Little Help From My Fwends (which will feature duets with Miley, Moby, and other Flaming Lips pals). A portion of the proceeds from the album will help disadvantaged Oklahoma City pet owners pay for veterinary care — a cause no doubt close to avowed animal lover Miley's heart.

Miley and Lips frontman Wayne Coyne actually looked like a couple of space animals themselves in their coordinated metallic shaggy coats. Wayne paired his silver topper, which seemed fashioned out of cheerleader pom-poms, with a tight red onesie, while Miley decorated her face with neon paint stripes seemingly inspired by either Adam Ant or the Klaxons. At one point in the strange performance, Wayne crumbled to the floor at Miley's bare feet, which were also smeared with rave paint.

This wasn't the first time that Miley and the Lips' Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd (introduced just as "Wayne and Steven" by Snoop Dogg) had performed onstage together. The unlikely trio made their live concert debut this past February at Los Angeles's Staples Center, when the Lips joined Miley for a ramshackle acoustic performance of the title track from their classic 2002 album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. That night, Miley explained to the bewildered Staples audience that the Lips are one of her favorite bands, saying, "These guys have inspired me to always be myself."

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