Village People lead singer Victor Willis insisted that the song, "Y.M.C.A." is not a gay anthem despite public perception and told listeners to get their "minds out of the gutter."
Released in 1978 as the sole single from their third album Cruisin', "Y.M.C.A." is a quintessential disco song.
The group often performed the number wearing costumes depicting ultra-masculine stereotypes, including a construction worker, a biker, an Indigenous person, and a police officer while singing lyrics such as:
"They have everything for young men to enjoy / You can hang out with all the boys."
– and –
"Stay there and I'm sure you will find / Many ways to have a good time."
The gimmicky song has become a mainstay at sporting events and wedding receptions, prompting people to dance by mimicking the song letters during the eponymous chorus.
"Y.M.C.A." has long been perceived as a gay anthem due to a gay culture assumption that local YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) locations were popular cruising and hookup spots for young gay men.
It is also a running joke that President-elect Donald Trump would revel in the campy pageantry by using the popular disco song to close out many of the rallies during his 2020 re-election campaign despite his "manly" persona and known misogyny.
Willis, who wrote the song lyrics, set the record straight on December 2 with a Facebook post explaining why he's allowed Trump to use the song and "why the song is not really a gay anthem."
Willis stated:
"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."
He continued:
"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 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."
Willis reiterated the fact that he "knew nothing about the Y being a hang out for gays" when writing the lyrics and that his writing partner Jacques Morali, "who was gay," never mentioned it to him.
"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," Willis recalled.
"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."
The 73-year-old added:
"So, to the extent that Y.M.C.A. is considered a gay anthem based on the fact that gays once used certain YMCA’s for elicit [sic] activity, the assumption that the song alludes to that is completely misguided."
Listeners begged to differ.
Willis went even further and suggested he would consider taking legal action against media outlets that allude to "Y.M.C.A." being a gay anthem in articles and headlines.
"Since I wrote the lyrics and ought to know what the lyrics I wrote is really about, come January 2025, my wife will start suing each and every news organization that falsely refers to Y.M.C.A., either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit [sic] activity for which it does not," he said.
After his urgent warning, the founding Village People member noted:
"However, 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 play list 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 organization, and the song is used in commercials and motion pictures and products worldwide."
He concluded with:
"The true anthem is Y.M.C.A.’s appeal to people of all strips [sic] 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."
Earlier in his statement, Willis also said he had initial misgivings about Trump using the song for his rallies but eventually acquiesced as "Y.M.C.A." gained a resurgence and proved to be "beneficial" having it back on music charts.
"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," said Willis.
"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."
He continued:
"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. So I told my wife to inform BMI to not withdraw the Trump campaign political use license."
"My French partners were contemplating legal action out of France. So I had my wife contact our French partners and asked them to stay out of the Trump campaign’s use of Y.M.C.A. because it is a U.S. matter, and I will make the decision on his use. Our French partners quickly backed off of their objection to his use."
Willis said the song "benefitted greatly" since Trump used the song on many occasions, citing that "Y.M.C.A." was "stuck at #2 on the Billboard chart" before Trump started using the song.
"However, the song finally made it to #1 on a Billboard chart after over 45 years (and held on to #1 for two weeks) due to the President Elect’s use," he said, adding that the financial benefits have been just as rewarding as the song is "estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song."
"Therefore, 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," stated Willis.
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