Village People singer Victor Willis issued a lengthy statement on Facebook addressing Trump’s use of the band’s classic hit “YMCA” as well as the song’s labeling as a national anthem. for gay people.
On December 3, Willis confirmed for the first time that he was one of the song’s writers, along with Jacques Morali. The male singer shared that he received thousands of complaints about the song being used in Trump’s election campaigns, causing him to ask to stop it because it was “annoying”.
However, Willis revealed that the Trump campaign received a political use license from Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), a performing rights organization in the United States, allows authorities to use “YMCA” however they wish.
Willis shared: “In fact, I started to notice a lot of artists withdrawing from using the President-elect’s material. But one day I said to my wife, ‘Hey, ‘Trump’ has Seems to really like the YMCA and he has a lot of fun with it.”
The male singer continued to say that he had no “heart” to prevent Trump from continuing to use the song, and also told his wife to notify BMI not to withdraw the campaign’s political use license. Legal action was also considered by Willis’s contacts from France, but asked them to “stay away” from the Trump campaign as it was a US matter.
Willis also denied accusations that “YMCA” was considered a gay anthem.
“As I’ve said many times before, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing collaborators are gay and some (but not all) of the Villagers are gay, and The Village People’s first album is entirely about gay life.”
“This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA appears to have been used as a gay gathering place, and since one of the writers is gay and some of the Villagers are gay, the song should be a message to gay people that I say again, get your mind out of the gutter.
Keywords Donald Trump