A founding member of the Village People and long-time critic of Donald Trump’s use of the group’s song YMCA is changing his tune and says he would now consider performing the 70s anthem at the president-elect’s upcoming inauguration.
Victor Willis told Fox & Friends First that he would also allow the president-elect to continue using the song at events.
“I decided to allow the president-elect’s continued use of YMCA because he seems to genuinely, genuinely like the song, and so many other artists were stopping him from using their music,” Willis told Fox Thursday.
Willis had for years demanded that Trump stop using the song, which is widely regarded as a popular gay anthem often performed by the distinctively outfitted Village People, an odd choice for a man opposed to the LGBTQ community.
Willis added: “I decided to contact BMI [Broadcast Music, Inc.] and told them not to terminate his political use license because he seemed to be bringing so much joy to the American people with his use of YMCA.”
Trump’s wooden dance moves to the song have gone viral across social media and even prompted responses in the world of sports.
Willis sang and co-wrote the tune, and now says Trump’s use of it has contributed to it hitting the sales charts again 46 years after its initial release.
The founding member of the Village People previously condemned Trump’s use of the song as well as Macho Man. He earlier said that the group would prefer the song be “kept out of politics.”
But YMCA’s comeback has led some to speculate that the band may perform at Trump’s inauguration in January.
“If you were to ask me today if the Village People would perform at the inauguration, I would probably say not because we’d be concerned about endorsement” of Trump, Willis told Fox.
“However, because the president-elect has done so much for YMCA and brought so much joy to so many people, the song has actually gone back to number one [in sales], and it’s still number one today, so if he were to ask the Village People to perform the song live for him, we’d have to seriously consider it,” he added.
He noted: “The financial benefits have been great … YMCA is estimated to have grossed 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 YMCA., And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”
Willis has rejected the notion that the song is a gay anthem. He urged those thinking the song isn’t intended as straight to “get their minds out of the gutter.”
“Come January 2025, my wife will start suing each and every news organization that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that YMCA 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 declared on Facebook.
The song’s lyrics refer to young men new in a city heading to the YMCA gym and rooming to “hang out with all the boys” and “do whatever you feel.”
But Willis argued on Facebook that the line “you can hang out with all the boys” is “simply 1970s Black slang for Black guys hanging out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that,” he insisted.
But, he added: “I don’t mind that gays think of YMCA as their anthem.”
