Ghosts Under The Big Top

[Intro]
[laughter and faint crowd murmur]
Tickets tear in empty hands
Curtain shakes on rusted rails
Spotlight flickers, finds our faces
We take our marks like bedtime tales
[Verse 1]
(Female)
Powder on my cheeks, still cracking
Mirror’s got a hundred eyes
Sequins on a rotting jacket
Still I bow, still I smile
Velvet seats in shredded rows
Names carved deep in splintered wood
Hear them breathing? hear them cheering?
Guess they always understood
[Chorus]
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
Where the curtains fall but we don’t stop
We keep dancing in the same old costumes
Chasing all the shadows in an empty room
We were swallowed by the smoke and sawdust
Now we’re clapping for a make-believe crowd
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
Where the dead talk loud, the dead talk loud
[Verse 2]
(Male, rap)
Paint peeled off the posters, my face in the fold
Used to juggle little knives, now my fingers are cold
Every night, same act, same joke, same pose
Every night, same laugh track nobody chose
Tightrope hangs crooked from the half-burnt beam
I swear I hear the drumroll, I swear it ain’t a dream
You’re out there, right? I can feel your stare
’Til the wind blows through, and there’s no one there
(Female)
Lion’s just a faded drawing
On a tarp that’s turning gray
Still I crack the ghostly whip
Like it ever felt the pain
[Chorus]
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
Where the curtains fall but we don’t stop
We keep dancing in the same old costumes
Chasing all the shadows in an empty room
We were swallowed by the smoke and sawdust
Now we’re clapping for a make-believe crowd
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
Where the dead talk loud, the dead talk loud
[Bridge]
(Female)
Why is the cotton candy melting
If there’s nothing in my hands?
Why’s the floor so far below me
When I never leave the stands?
(Male)
Why my name carved on the tent pole,
date beneath, little wax-white rose?
Read it once, feel my chest go hollow
Read it twice, every secret shows
(Female + Male, layered)
We remember fire
We remember falling
We remember sirens
We remember calling
No one came
No one came
[Chorus]
(Female lead, Male echoes)
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
(we’re the echo of an echo that the world forgot)
Where the curtains fall but we don’t stop
(broken bulbs still buzzing in a parking lot)
We keep dancing in the same old costumes
Still stuck in our final afternoon
We were swallowed by the smoke and sawdust
And we’re clapping for a make-believe crowd
Welcome to the ghosts under the big top
Where we finally know why it won’t stop
We’re the dead that won’t walk out the room
Taking one last bow in an empty tomb
[Outro]
(Female, soft)
Take your seats
Take your seats
(Male)
But the benches stayed bare
And the night stayed black
(Female)
We remember that we never made it back

rap, Dark pop-rap duet with female lead and male support vocals. Sparse, detuned carousel keys and sub-heavy trap drums in the verses; eerie choirs and warped calliope tones bloom in the hook. Female vocal glides between breathy and belted, male rap locks into a sharp, percussive pocket with occasional melodic doubles. Final chorus strips back to almost acapella with distant crowd FX and reverb tail swallowing the track., vocal, female vocals, pop