Victor Willis of the Village People Musical group performs during the Boogietown Festival at Apps Court Farm. Bonnie Britain/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Village People founder Victor Willis is once again tackling two issues surrounding the disco band’s 1970s smash hit “Y.M.C.A.”: Donald Trump’s use of the track in his 2024 presidential campaign and the characterization of the song as a “gay anthem.”
In a lengthy Facebook post on Monday (Dec. 2), the 73-year-old singer-songwriter doubled down on why he chose to let the president-elect play “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies and events leading up to his win in November, with Willis saying he “didn’t have the heart” to block the usage — despite originally asking Trump to stop in 2020 — upon realizing that the politician seemed to “genuinely like” and was “having a lot of fun” with “Y.M.C.A.” Plus, as Willis noted, the dance tune has only “benefited greatly” in terms of chart placements and sales since the twice-impeached former POTUS incorporated it into his campaign.
“Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A.” the musician wrote. “And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”
Willis also pointed out that Trump had, according to him, obtained the necessary license from BMI to play the song. The artist previously noted that the billionaire was legally allowed to use “Y.M.C.A.” in an October press release, in which Willis also stated that — despite supporting Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 election — he would not go through any channels to bar Trump from using the track as it would’ve been “stupid and just plain hateful” to do so.
Controversy surrounding Trump’s unauthorized use of artists’ music is nothing new, with Village People — prior to Willis’ change of heart — being just one of many acts since the polarizing president elect’s first White House bid in 2016 to ask that he stop playing their songs at campaign events without direct approval. This year alone, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, the Foo Fighters, Jack White and several others issued statements slamming Trump for doing so, while Isaac Hayes’ estate went as far as filing a lawsuit against the politician in August for using the late soul singer’s “Hold On, I’m Coming” at multiple rallies.
However, as Willis noted in his post, it can pay to be on Trump’s playlists. In November, “Y.M.C.A.” ascended to the top of Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart more than four decades after its release, spending two weeks at No. 1. And according to the Village People star, the song “is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song.”
As for another debacle that has “reached a fever pitch” amid Trump’s continued use of “Y.M.C.A.,” according to Willis, the singer wrote that any branding of the track as a “gay anthem” is “completely misguided” and “damaging to the song.” He also threatened legal action against “each and every news organization that falsely refers” to it as such starting in January 2025, although he personally doesn’t mind if “gays think of the song as their anthem.”
“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 [Jacques Morali] was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people,” Willis wrote. “To that I say, once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not … such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to [illicit] activity for which it does not.”
“Y.M.C.A.” has indeed been widely adopted by the LGBTQ community over the years, with many interpreting the lyrics as references to the gym chain’s reputation as a popular cruising site back in the day — plus, the track comes from a 1978 album titled Cruisin’. Even so, Willis’ latest post is not the first time he’s sought to distance the track from the gay anthem label, writing in a 2020 Facebook post: “No one group can claim Y.M.C.A. as somehow belonging to them or somehow their anthem. I won’t allow my iconic song to be placed in a box like that.”
Clearly, Willis hasn’t budged on his stance in the four years since. “The true anthem is Y.M.C.A.’s appeal to people of all strips including President Elect Trump,” he concluded in his Monday post. “But the song is not really a gay anthem other than certain people falsely suggesting that it is.”
