Madame Bullshit

"Madame Bullshit" is the third song on Romo's second self-titled, fifth studio album Romo (II), surprise released September 8, 2020. It was released as the second single from the album on November 6, 2020. "Madame Bullshit" is a two-part song with the first part being an experimental electropop song with vocal influences from pop punk music, while the second contains an elaborate instrumental coda of the indie rock genre with its vocals consisting exclusively of a chorus of "Bullshit."

Despite the song winning widespread critical acclaim, the single release of "Madame Bullshit" was mired in controversy, as the glitch art-inspired video was panned by critics and was briefly pulled from YouTube for failing to include an epilepsy warning, and the single debuted at a disappointing #5 position, angering Romo because of her opinion that her position was not justified given her aggressive promotional campaign. As a consequence of the single's commercial disappointment, Romo retreated from the spotlight following the release of a song airing her grievances called "The Scorched Earth" and abruptly ended the Romo (II) era despite her label staff announcing "Turned Ugly" as a follow-up single. "Madame Bullshit" did overcome the controversy by spending four months in the top 40 and going on to be certified gold.

Composition
Romo created "Madame Bullshit" as an outlet for venting anger on the album after noticing that most of the songs she was writing expressed hopelessness for the future, but without a call to action. Romo envisioned the song as expressing a rebellion against the forces that make people feel hopeless, even in the face of aggressive obstacles.

The first part of the track contains some of Romo's most chaotic instrumentation and vocal performances, alternating between loud scream-singing that battles the instrumental with outright screaming. Musically, the song is an experimental electropop song, partly influenced by the microgenres of hyperpop and glitchcore, that defies the structure of conventional pop songs, with a sound Romo described as "gritty" and "raw." She wanted the song to sound like a rock song, without using guitar or drums in its making.

The second part is a soft, quiet indie rock-influenced coda consisting only of a repeated "Bullshit", until Romo in the song's last seconds drags out "She ... is ... bullshit!" Romo based the song's second part on the 2000 song "For The Damaged Coda" by Blonde Redhead, famously used in the animated sitcom Rick & Morty.

Lyrics
"Madame Bullshit" contains some of the angriest lyrics on Romo (II), describing an unsympathetic character who uses her power and influence to bring people down. The narrator disrespects the ground she walks on and says it's "not worth burying a corpse there," derides her taking the low road in everything she does that even marijuana can't lift her above "the level of a step stool", and that she has better aim throwing a dart at her own face. In between the song's two parts, the narrator laments the song's subject left her feeling "fucked over", ruining her ability to support herself. The song's ending is the repeated word "Bullshit!"

Romo titled the song "Madame Bullshit" as an attempt to one-up the song titles of American hip hop duo Run The Jewels.

Speculation on the song's subject
Since the release of Romo (II), fans and critics have widely speculated who Romo wrote "Madame Bullshit" about. The lyrics note the subject is someone who "swings to the lowest to angry up your base's blood", "starve(s) a thousand people to feed your family and your partners", and "Project(s) your weaknesses onto others to look better than them," among other things. Many industry publications think the song is about UK prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, or both, while some think it could be a reference to female players in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump such as first lady Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump and former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

Romo has said in an interview the song is a composite sketch inspired by multiple people and the subject is not one particular person, similar to Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", which to this day continues to be the subject of speculation.

Track listings
CD single
 * 1) Madame Bullshit (album version)
 * 2) Madame BS (single version)
 * 3) Madame Bullshit (Knobfeelers Remix)
 * 4) Dissolved Girl

Vinyl single
 * 1) Madame Bullshit (album version)
 * 2) Madame BS (single version)
 * 3) Dissolved Girl

Promotion
Romo confirmed "Madame Bullshit" as the second single from Romo (II) during the livestream concert Feminist Christ's Revival (In The Name Of The Mother) on September 24, 2020. Full time promotion commenced one week following the charting of the album's previous single "Feminis†", with a cryptic announcement on Romo's website reading, "Feminist Christ is dead. Long live Madame Bullshit."

So far, the promotional cycle has involved Romo rehashing the ROUGE feud and taking up meditation and yoga despite feeling no calming effect to prevent her from feuding. Romo also made headlines for several podcast appearances including Song Exploder and Jack Stevens' Close Encounters Podcast, attempting and failing to have "Madame Bullshit" be the official Children In Need single of 2020, releasing a line of makeup with an unknown brand (the brand wasn't important to Romo because it wasn't Romo), a Buzzfeed listicle compiling her 25 best one-liners, and a visit to a Lindt chocolate shop where she purchased chocolate Easter bunnies while shopping for Halloween candy, thinking the bunnies looked demonic. Timing with the 12-year anniversary of her single "Schizo Pop", Stereogum profiled the song for its The Number Ones column.

Version 1
On October 20, 2020, Romo previewed a brief snippet of the "Madame Bullshit" video via Instagram, showing a glitchy image of Romo singing into the camera. The video is said to take heavy inspiration from glitch art, which also inspired the artwork for "Feminis†". It premiered on November 3, 2020.

Reception and controversy
The video for "Madame Bullshit" polarized music critics. Some praised the special effects and visual aesthetics, while others thought it was messy and unwatchable. Stereogum's review of the video was simply a meme photo with someone wearing face masks over their eyes. Music journalist Ian Cohen, whose Twitter frequently includes screengrabs from episodes of The Simpsons, tweeted a photo from an episode where the Simpsons family had seizures while watching a Japanese cartoon and captioned it "Romo - Madame Bullshit".

Romo's YouTube account was flagged for violating terms of service because the "Madame Bullshit" video failed to include a warning at the beginning stating that the flashing lights and colors in the video from the glitch art effects could potentially trigger seizures in people who suffer from epilepsy. The video was later re-uploaded with a warning included.

Version 2
Romo announced an alternate video for "Madame Bullshit" to cater to a gay audience on October 28, 2020. This alternate treatment would depict Romo shapeshifting into an assortment of shirtless men. Romo said The Empire Entertainment ordered the video as a counterpoint to the so-called "abs advantage" that Romo said put Gabriel Dresden and Paul in greater contention with pop music's LGBTQ audience.

Critical
"Madame Bullshit" has been singled out by some reviewers as one of the best songs on Romo (II). Many compared it favorably to the work of Grimes and 100 Gecs, who Romo listed as an influence on the song, as well as the metalcore band Iwrestledabearonce, who have a number of songs that start out chaotic and have a quiet, melodic conclusion. One review described the song's music and lyrics as "Blink-182 if they worshiped Giorgio Moroder instead of Descendents." Many of Romo's industry peers were overwhelmingly positive of the decision to release "Madame Bullshit" as the album's second single.

Commercial
On November 13, 2020, "Madame Bullshit" debuted at #5 with sales of 76,742 copies, dramatically underperforming despite an aggressive promotional campaign. The single climbed to #4 the following week on sales of 79,971 copies, but following a backlash against her resulting from her airing of grievances about the chart position (see below), it plunged to #12 in its third week. "Madame Bullshit" became a sleeper hit in the long run, spending four months in the top 40 and selling a total of 312,573 copies, enough to be certified gold.

A month prior to its commercial release, "Madame Bullshit" managed to reach #34 on Urapopstar's airplay charts based on pre-impact support. It has since peaked at #6.

Controversy
Romo felt angry and sad about the single's commercial disappointment, furthering her frustrations with the industry coming after the chilly response to the music video. Despite her label team announcing a new single, Romo refused to put the disappointment past her and decided to write and record a new song airing her grievances entitled "The Scorched Earth". The song's timing was negatively received and many of her industry peers responded with grave concern for Romo's mental health. In light of those concerns, Romo abruptly ended the Romo (II) era and retreated back to private life to focus on her health and well being.