The Village People’s Victor Willis wants everyone to know the band’s classic song “Y.M.C.A.” is not a gay anthem.
In a post on Facebook, Willis addressed President-elect Donald Trump’s use of the song at rallies and any suggestion that it’s strange he’d use a gay anthem.
Willis notes that he let Trump use the song because he seemed to “genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.”
“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,” Willis adds, noting the song has “benefited greatly” from Trump’s use, particularly financially — the tune has grossed “several million dollars.”
But then Willis addressed the suggestion that the 1978 disco track is a gay anthem.
“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 writes. “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.”
He adds, “To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.”
“The true anthem is Y.M.C.A.’s appeal to people of all strips including President Elect Trump,” Willis writes. “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.”
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