The track is a transgressive, capital-S statement that isn’t spit-shined for mass consumption.
Wen Madonna introduced Sam Smith and Kim Petras at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, the subject of the singer’s appearance overshadowed both her message—“You are seen, you are heard, and most of all, you are appreciated”—and the symbolic significance of a legendary gay icon and activist introducing two openly queer pop stars on national TV. The sight of a 64-year-old woman’s face seemed to send more people clutching for their proverbial pearls than the Unholy duo’s supposedly profane performance. The march of progress is slow and, apparently, isn’t straight.
The day after the Grammys, Smith and Madonna—cheekily dubbing themselves “S&M”—met up in a studio to record the throbbing, two-and-a-half-minute house song Vulgar. Calling it a “song” is, perhaps, too generous, as the ballroom-inspired bitch track merely gestures toward the structure of a conventional pop song, with half-rapped verses and a hook that consists of the titular word spoken five times atop an aggro EDM beat and serpentine strings.
Upon first listen, Vulgar seems like a trifle in the vein of Material Gworrllllllll!, Madonna’s collaboration with Saucy Santana from last year. But—released during Pride Month, and on 6/9 no less— Vulgar is very much a transgressive, capital-S statement. One that, unlike Popular isn’t spit-shined for mass consumption.
Both Smith and Madonna have, throughout their respective careers, refused to conform to the strictures that the industry has demanded of them. Despite a relatively demure period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Madonna has aged with about as much “grace” as one might expect from an iconoclast who, at the height of her fame, released a book that includes a photo where she’s tied to a chair while an androgynous female model holds a switchblade to her throat and another suckles on her bare breast. So, it should come as a surprise to exactly no one that the way Madonna has chosen to age displeases feminists and misogynists alike.
For Smith’s part, the nonbinary artist subverts traditional notions of gender—and has dared to do so while defying what society has deemed to be acceptable body standards. At a time when LGBTQ people have become targets of right-wing extremists, Smith’s very existence is an act of resistance—and Vulgar an attempt at reclamation. “Look like I’m dressed to kill, love how I make me feel…You know you’re beautiful when they call you vulgar,” Smith declares, seemingly in response to the body-shaming they’ve faced.
By track’s end, the beat reaches a frenzied pitch as Smith woofs (literally) in the background and Madonna orders us to say their names. It’s messy, it’s campy, and it’s gloriously self-aware: “Vulgar will make you dance, don’t need a chorus/Say we’re ridiculous, we’ll just go harder,” S&M chant in unison.“Go fuck yourself,” Madonna sneers at one point. If that—or her face, or Sam’s body—triggers you, she’s probably talking to you.
“Go fuck yourself,” Madonna sneers at one point. If that—or her face, or Sam’s body—triggers you, she’s probably talking to you.
