The film is an adaptation of the popular Disney Channel original series Hannah Montana, which first aired in 2006.

It became an ongoing collaboration between Chelsom, Cyrus, choreographer Jamal Sims, and the song's writers, Adam Anders and Nikki Hasman.

[5] Jessi Alexander said she was inspired to write "The Climb" while driving to the home of her songwriting partner, Jon Mabe.

[9] Under the name Hannah Montana, Cyrus performs the song "Let's Do This", which was originally written and recorded by American country singer Adam Tefteller.

[11] Rascal Flatts perform acoustic versions of previous efforts originally released on Feels Like Today (2004) and Me and My Gang (2006).

[11] When approached about participating in the soundtrack, Taylor Swift sent her ballad "Crazier" because it "was perfect to fall in love to".

[5] Swift also wrote the opening track "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" with Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls.

[11] "The Climb" has solid, clear vocals and is a standard-issue power ballad that places piano solos between chiming electric guitars.

With the exception of "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home", which speaks about staying grounded and relying on family,[12] Montana's songs describe the "glitzy-world" and privileges of a celebrity.

[12] "The Best of Both Worlds" explicitly alludes to Cyrus' character's double life as Montana: regular adolescent that moved from Nashville, Tennessee to Malibu, California by day and pop star by night.

[15][16] In the song, Montana talks about the privileges and advantages that are faced in leading in two lives with references to Orlando Bloom, concerts, friendship and film premieres.

[18] "Butterfly Fly Away" is a father-daughter duet by Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus about the coming of age.

[11] Country group Rascal Flatts provide an acoustic version of "Backwards" and "Bless the Broken Road" with Williamson County Youth Orchestra.

[20] In the United States, the song topped Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks for fifteen consecutive weeks.

[32] Cyrus has performed songs from the album on the Academy of Country Music,[8] The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[33] American Idol,[34] Good Morning America,[35] Live with Regis and Kelly,[36] the AOL Sessions,[37] the twentieth annual A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival,[38] Today,[39][40] and the first D23 Expo.

[51] The Miley Sessions, a series of promotional music videos that featured Cyrus singing in a recording studio were released to Disney.com in March 2009.

[52] Disney Channel aired a series of commercial segments entitled Hannah Montana: The Movie Playback, in which Cyrus is in the same setting describing the music of the album.

Cyrus also embarked for a five city acoustic radio promo tour that reached over two-hundred-fifty for six days to promote the album.

[11] Truitt also made musical comparisons to Shania Twain in "Dream", Kelly Clarkson in "Don't Walk Away", Avril Lavigne in "The Good Life", and Gwen Stefani in "Spotlight" and "Let's Get Crazy".

[11] Heather Phares of AllMusic noted the presence of many drastically different genres makes the album "a little weird".

[12] Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly stated, "the distance between tween and twang isn't actually all that far; think of this [...] as a sort of country-lite starter kit for her legion of young Disney-fed fans".

[53] In the end, she said Hannah Montana: The Movie was "the Miley show — whether it broadcasts from Nashville or Hollywood", despite appearances by other artists.

[53] Hannah Montana: The Movie debuted on the Billboard 200 at number two with 139,000 copies sold on the issue date April 11, 2009.

[54] After four weeks of ascending and descending the chart, the album reached the number one position, becoming the first soundtrack of the year to top the Billboard 200.

[57] After two months, the album became certified platinum for shipments of one million copies by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

[63] In Australia, the soundtrack peaked at number six and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), selling more than 70,000 copies.