Victor Willis, one of the songwriters of Village People’s camp disco hit Y.M.C.A. has defended president-elect Donald Trump’s use of the song while campaigning in the US presidential elections, and has firmly denied the song is a gay anthem.
Willis, who acknowlegded he was to earn “several million dollars” from the song being used prominently during Trump’s campaign rallies, initially asked Trump to cease playing the song at events as the the complaints he received from fans became a “nuisance to me”. However, “the Trump campaign knew they had obtained a political use license from BMI and absent that license being terminated, they had every right to continue using Y.M.C.A. And they did.”
As for the idea that Y.M.C.A. is “somehow a gay anthem,” Willis said 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 continued: “This assumption is also based on the fact that the Y.M.C.A. 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.”
“I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem, but you’d be hard-pressed to find Y.M.C.A. on the playlist at any gay club, parade or other gay activity in a way that would suggest it’s somehow an anthem to the community other than alluding to illicit activity, which is defamatory, and damaging to the song. But it stops in 2025.
“However, you know where you-will find Y.M.C.A.? On the play list of almost every wedding, bar mitzvah, sporting organisation, and the song is used in commercials and motion pictures and products worldwide.
“The true anthem is ‘Y.M.C.A.‘s appeal to people of all strips including Trump. But the song is not really a gay anthem other than certain people falsely suggesting that it is. And this must stop because it is damaging to the song.”