Village People’s Victor Willis Defends Trump Using 'Y.M.C.A.'

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Victor Willis, a founding member of the Village People, shocked many this week when he defended allowing Donald Trump to use the song during his campaign rallies.

In a Facebook post, Willis noted that Trump had the proper BMI license and that he chose not to revoke permissions after seeing Trump genuinely enjoy and have fun with the song.

To Village People fans and the media:

I am the singer and writer of the lyrics to the hit Y.M.C.A. In fact, as was adjudicated and ruled in a U.S. District Court, I wrote 100% of the lyrics, and my writing partner, Jacques Morali wrote the music.

Since 2020, I’ve received over a thousand complaints about President Elect Trump’s use of Y.M.C.A. With that many complaints, I decided to ask the President Elect to stop using Y.M.C.A. because his use had become a nuisance to me.

However, the use continued because 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.

In fact, I started noticing numerous artists withdrawing the President Elect’s use of their material. But by the time I said to my wife one day, hey, “Trump” seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.

Willis explained that he decided not to block Donald Trump’s use of “Y.M.C.A.” despite many artists withdrawing their music. He wrote, “I simply didn’t have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song.” Willis instructed his wife to inform BMI to keep the Trump campaign’s license active. Although his French partners initially considered legal action, he told them to stay out of the matter, emphasizing it was a U.S. issue, and they agreed.

Willis noted the benefits of Trump’s use of the song, stating, “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.” He also highlighted the financial success, estimating the song has grossed several million dollars thanks to Trump, adding, “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.”

Willis also rejected claims that the song “Y.M.C.A.” is a “gay anthem.”

“There’s been a lot of talk, especially of late, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem,” he continued. “As I’ve said numerous times in the past, 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.”

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.

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. and Jacques Morali (who was gay) never once stated such to me. In fact, Jacques never once told me how to write my lyrics otherwise I would have said to him, you don’t need me, why don’t you simply write the lyrics.

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. 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.

He concluded, “The true anthem is Y.M.C.A.’s appeal to people of all stripes, including President Elect 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.”