Victor Willis, singer and co-writer of the Village People’s hit “Y.M.C.A.,” announced on Monday that starting January 1, he will file lawsuits against any news organization that labels the song a “gay anthem.”
The 1978 disco classic recently surged to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, driven by its prominent use at President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign rallies and his victory on November 5.
In a Monday Facebook post, Willis noted, “There’s been a lot of talk, especially of late, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow 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.”
“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,” he added.
Victor Willis, who clarified that he is not gay, emphasized that he wrote 100 percent of the lyrics for “Y.M.C.A.” The song’s music was composed by the late French producer Jacques Morali.
“As I stated on numerous occasions, I knew nothing about the Y being a hangout 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,” Willis continued.
“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.”
“Y.M.C.A.” stands for the Young Men’s Christian Association, an organization founded in London, England, in 1844. It made its way to the United States in 1851, with its first branch established in Boston.
According to the YMCA website, “The Y has grown exponentially over the span of our rich history, but our mission of putting Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all has remained constant.”
Willis mentioned that it would be difficult to find “Y.M.C.A.” featured on playlists at gay clubs or events as if it were an anthem of the LGBTQ+ community. Instead, the song is commonly played at weddings, sports events, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.
“Therefore, since I wrote the lyrics and ought to know what the lyrics I wrote is really about, come January 2025, my wife [Karen Willis, who is the manager of the Village People] 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 [illicit] activity for which it does not,” Willis wrote.
In his Facebook post, the singer discussed how he changed his mind about Trump using his song at rallies. Although he initially opposed it and received complaints from many people, he noticed that Trump seemed to genuinely enjoy the song.
