“YMCA” singer and Village People co-writer Victor Willis defended President-elect Donald Trump’s use of the song on Monday. on Facebook. Willis denied that the disco tune was intended as a “homosexual anthem”, saying he “knew nothing about Y being a gay ride” when he wrote the lyrics.
Willis said he wrote “YMCA” based on what he knew about the world youth organization at the time, particularly the YMCA branches in the San Francisco metropolitan area.
“When I say ‘hanging out with all the boys,’ that’s just 1970s black slang for black guys hanging out for sports or gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about it,” he said of one of the song’s most notable lines.
Willis said he received more than 1,000 complaints about Trump’s use of “YMCA” at campaign rallies. Trump started dancing to the 1978 hit at the end of his 2020 rallies, and still does. Reports show that the staple campaign moment has pushed the song up the charts increase in search interest and audience election day.
Athletes started He imitates Trump’s dance A short time later, the disco classic in the field raised questions about the existence of politics in sports.
Willis said he asked Trump to stop using the song because its use caused “discomfort.” He said Trump had obtained a political use license for the song from BMI, exercising musical performance rights, and therefore had the right to continue using it.
Like other artists began to oppose As for Trump’s use of his music at campaign rallies, Willis said he didn’t have the “heart” to stop him from using the YMCA. to use a song.
For his part, Willis said he made more than that.
“For example, YMCA was at No. 2 on the Billboard chart before the use of President-Elect. However, the song finally reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart more than 45 years later (and stayed at No. 1 for two weeks) thanks to the use of the President-Elect,” Willis wrote in the post, adding that “there are financial benefits. it was great.”
Willis said the “false assumption” that “YMCA” was a gay anthem could be due to several factors: His writing partner and several members of the Village People were gay, the band’s first album was “totally about gay life,” and “YMCA was probably that was being used as a sort of gay date.However, he emphasized that the song was not a gay anthem and said that people should “take their minds off it”.
Willis said he wasn’t worried about the song being considered a gay anthem, but that false assumptions “hurt the song.” Starting in January, he said he would sue any news organization that cited his wife’s “YMCA” as a gay anthem.
Trump’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.