Village People Member Changes Tune on Trump Using ‘YMCA,’ Cites ‘Financial Benefits’
December 4, 2024
Victor Willis’ sentiments did not escape criticism on social media.
Victor Willis, a member of the disco-era group Village People and a co-writer of “Y.M.C.A.,” has changed his mind about allowing President-elect Donald Trump to use the group’s 1978 hit song.
According to MSNBC, in a Dec. 2 Facebook post, Willis now feelsTrump “seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it,” and also threatened to sue news outlets who refer to the song as a “gay anthem.”
Willis also acknowledged that his newfound acceptance of Trump’s use of the song has come with an estimated “several million dollars” since Trump has played the long-ago hit at his rallies and events.
“As such, I simply didn’t have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song in the face of so many artists withdrawing his use of their material,” Willis wrote. In 2023, the manager for the Village People sent a cease and desist to the Trump campaign.
Despite Willis’ protest that Y.M.C.A. is not a gay anthem, according to an essay commemorating Pride Month for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, written by Josiah Howard in 2021, gay communities have adopted the song as their unofficial anthem for decades.
In large part, according to Howard, the messaging present in the song and from the group’s presentation of themselves lent to the adoption of the group and their songs by gay Americans.
Although Howard notes that Willis, a heterosexual man, has consistently pushed back on the conceptualization of the song as a gay anthem, it has largely fallen on deaf ears because gay people have decided that it is a song that represents them.
“Regardless, they were a hit. The gay messaging in their songs, the gay fantasy stripper costumes, the gay dancing and faux macho posturing seemed to go over the heads of the audience–or they just didn’t care,” Howard wrote.
Although Willis did threaten to sue “each and every news organization that falsely refers to Y.M.C.A., either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem,” beginning in January 2025, he also indicated that he doesn’t mind that gay people have adopted his group’s biggest hit as their anthem. Of course, Willis’ sentiments did not escape criticism on social media.
Trump’s awkward dancing to “Y.M.C.A.” has spawned imitators, notably professional athletes like Las Vegas Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers and UFC star Jon Jones.
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In an appearance discussing the seeming acceptance of Trump’s dancing by professional athletes on CNN, former NFL player Donte Stallworth called attention to the hypocrisy around how players like Bowers have not been held to the same kind of scrutiny or accountability as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Former United States Men’s National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard forcefully called out the hypocritical nature of the celebrations in an op-ed for The Daily Mail.
“If someone feels strongly the other way, no problem. But if you’re going to make a political statement, then be bold and brash enough to stand behind it,” Howard wrote. “Doing the Trump dance is stupid. Regardless of whether it’s the President of the United States or my neighbor, I cannot support someone I believe to be racist. I won’t glamorize that, not for any reason. You cannot have it both ways. You’re either on one side or the other. If you’re bold enough to publicly make a statement, I don’t have a problem with that. But own it.”
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