Miley Cyrus: Elvis was the original twerker

The 'We Can't Stop' singer has attracted much attention and criticism for her penchant to perform the butt-shaking dance on stage in various flesh-flashing outfits.

However, Miley insists she isn't doing anything different to Elvis' hip-shaking in the 50s.

In an interview on Australian TV show 'Sunday Night', she said: "Elvis, he wasn't wearing the outfits I was wearing but he was coming out and he was doing, like, the OG twerking. Like, no one wants to admit that he was twerking, but he was.

"He was, like, sex. He was a symbol of sex but no one would have ever called Elvis a s**t because he wasn't a girl.

"It's that double standard and I think I'm doing something for the double standard."

Miley's belief that there are double standards applied to female musicians who use sex as part of their act and male performers who do the same she claims was vindicated by the criticism she received in the wake of her her most famous twerk with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

Recalling the performance - during which she stripped down to a flesh-coloured latex bikini and touched Robin's crouch with a foam finger - she said: "No one talked about him or what he was doing, it was all my fault. It's funny, I just never thought anything about it."

Miley also revealed in the interview that she is still in love with her former fiancé, actor Liam Hemsworth - whom she met when they filmed 'The Last Song' together in 2010 and split from permanently in September 2013.

She said: "I love Liam, Liam loves me."

Referring to her hit single 'Wrecking Ball' - which is believed to have been inspired by the couple's split - Miley, 21, added: "It's about finding yourself and sometimes you have to separate yourself from everyone. I just had to become this person who is sitting in this chair right now. If I didn't I just felt like there was something that was going to explode and I had to set myself free."