Victor Willis, lead singer of the music group the Village People, wrote a lengthy defense of President-elect Donald Trump using his hit song “Y.M.C.A.” and corrected the belief that the song was a “gay anthem.”
Willis explained in his Facebook post on Monday that he had initially asked Trump to “stop using Y.M.C.A. because his use had become a nuissance” to him since 2020 due to “the thousands” of fan complaints that he received over the presidential campaign’s usage of the song.
He noticed that other music artists were rejecting Trump’s use of their songs and admitted to his wife that Trump “seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.”
“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. So I told my wife to inform BMI to not withdraw the Trump campaign political use license,” Willis explained. “My French partners were contemplating legal action out of France. So I had my wife contact our French partners and asked them to stay out of the Trump campaign’s use of Y.M.C.A. because it is a U.S. matter, and I will make the decision on his use. Our French partners quickly backed off of their objection to his use.”
The founding Village People member said that his group has “benefited greatly from use by the President Elect.”
“Y.M.C.A. was stuck at #2 on the Billboard chart prior to the President Elect’s use. However, the song finally made it to #1 on a Billboard chart after over 45 years (and held on to #1 for two weeks) due to the President Elect’s use,” he said.
Willis added, “The financial benefits have been great as well as Y.M.C.A. is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump made the song a regular dance feature of his rallies where he did a fist pump motion and several dance steps to the song that became a nationwide dance craze on social media and television. Athletes from the NFL to the UFC and even world leaders began spontaneously breaking out into the signature Trump Y.M.C.A dance.
Here’s something to get your Monday going!!
America is back and the Trump effect is spreading across the world like wildfire! 🔥🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/yMLoLxTSAp
— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) November 18, 2024
The singer also made a correction of a widely believed assumption that the song was a “gay anthem.”
“That is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life,” Willis corrected the record.
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He continued, “This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.”
“Sadly, when the President Elect started using the song, people attempting to brand the song as a gay anthem reached a fever pitch as many used it to say, oh, Trump don’t know the song is a gay anthem? This was done in a manner to attempt to shame the President Elect’s use of the song,” he said.