"Dream As One" finds Miley Cyrus stepping into the Avatar universe. It's the end-credits song for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third chapter of the sci-fi saga, which means it plays just as audiences are wiping popcorn salt off their hands and thinking, "Well, that was a lot of blue people doing very dramatic things."
"Dream As One" is a love song that also reflects the film's elemental themes of fire and ash.
Even through the flames
Even through the ashes in the sky
Baby, when we dream, we dream as one
Because her home was destroyed in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, the theme of fire resonates powerfully with Miley. "Having been personally affected by fire and being rebuilt from the ashes," she noted, "this project holds profound meaning for me."
Miley Cyrus co-wrote "Dream As One" with Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and the film's composer, Simon Franglen.
The track is Cyrus and Ronson's fifth collaboration and their first since 2020, when they teamed up on two songs for her album
Plastic Hearts. They were also responsible for "
Nothing Breaks Like A Heart," the lead single from Ronson's 2019 album
Late Night Feelings.
Other Cyrus songs Wyatt has contributed to include "
Mother's Daughter," "
Slide Away," "
High" and "
Beautiful That Way ." Ronson also co-produced "High."
We're diamonds in the dark
I put my head against your chest
And listen to your heart
Speaking with ABC News' 20/20 for a special on the making of Avatar: Fire and Ash, Miley Cyrus recalled returning to the site after losing her Malibu home in the 2018 California wildfires. "When I lost my home, I went back to see if anything had survived," she said.
Among the ashes, she found a small but powerful symbol. "Underneath all the ash, I just saw a little sparkling stone, and it was a diamond from a piece of jewelry," Cyrus explained.
She said the discovery shaped her perspective while writing the song, comparing the diamond's resilience to the way beauty can emerge from devastation.
"Something like a diamond, it's beautiful, but it's strong, and so it can withstand that kind of heat," Cyrus added. "That's how diamonds are created. Sometimes, that's what it takes to create something beautiful."
Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt penned three completely different songs for Avatar: Fire and Ash before landing on the final choice.
"We actually wrote the song that it is now 'Dream as One' and we threw it out," Cyrus told The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "Then we wrote another one, and that one didn't feel quite right." After stepping away and returning with fresh ears, the team realized the original version had something special, only to discard it again.
The trio even wrote a third song, then when Ronson was out of town, Cyrus called him questioning whether abandoning the first track was a mistake. Ronson suggested taking a break. When he returned, the group listened to all the options one last time. "We were like, 'Forget these other songs - it's 'Dream as One,''" Cyrus said. "We went back to day one."
Cyrus noted that while she has often revised melodies, lyrics, or production details in the past, this marked the first time she had ever written three entirely separate songs for the same project. In the end, James Cameron only ever heard the final choice.
"James never even heard the other two," she said. "They were not worth listening to. The first one just always was Avatar."
