Village People singer backs Trump's use of 'Y.M.C.A.,' denies song is gay anthem

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- President-elect Donald Trump has found an unlikely defender in original Village People singer Victor Willis. Willis, who as an original member of the prolific disco group, took to social media to defend Trump's use of the Village People hit "Y.M.C.A."

The disco anthem, which was released in 1978 and featured lyrics written by Willis, was a fixture in the playlist at Trump rallies throughout his recent campaign. The president-elect would frequently dance to the song at his rallies with quirky moves that have of-late, been performed by celebrating athletes, most notably, United States Men's National Team soccer star, Christian Pulisic and San Francisco 49ers rusher Nick Bossa.

Willis, who according to his IMDB bio lives in San Francisco, posted that since 2020, he's received "over a thousand complaints" about Trump using the song.

"With that many complaints," Willis said, "I decided to ask the President Elect to stop using Y.M.C.A. because his use had become a nuisance to me."

But Trump has continued to play the song at rallies, because according to Willis, his campaign obtained a political use license from Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI).

"Absent that license being terminated, they had every right to continue using Y.M.C.A. And they did," Willis said. The singer went on to say that while he "noticed numerous artists" prohibiting Trump from using their songs, he told his wife that Trump "seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he's having a lot of fun with it."

"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 said. "So I told my wife to inform BMI to not withdraw the Trump campaign political use license."

According to Willis, he also had his wife intercede to prevent the band's French partners from taking legal action against the Trump campaign.

The Village People was originally put together by French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, along with Willis. While the popular disco band enjoyed a massive following in the gay community, Willis also took the opportunity to push back on the perception of "Y.M.C.A." being a gay anthem.

"As I've said numerous times in the past, this is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of the Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life."

"As I stated on numerous occasions, I knew nothing about the Y being a hang out for gays when I wrote the lyrics to Y.M.C.A.," Willis said.

"I therefore wrote Y.M.C.A. about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms," he continued. "And when I say 'hang out with all the boys' that is simply 1970s Black slang for Black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling, or whatever. There's nothing gay about that."

"However, I don't mind that gays think of the song as their anthem," Willis added.

Trump's use of the bygone anthem from the disco era has apparently given the song a second life. According to Willis, while "Y.M.C.A." topped out at No. 2 on the Billboard charts on its initial release, it finally made it to No. 1 and remained there for two weeks "due to the President Elect's use."