Victor Willis, the lead singer and one of the songwriters for The Village People, has posted a long rant to social media and once again threatened to sue any media outlets who describe YMCA as being a song about the gay community.
It’s not the first time Willis has made the threat, he made similar statements back in 2020.
The singer says; “…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.”
Willis co-wrote many of the band’s big hits, but he quit the band in the late 1970s just before they made the film Can’t Stop the Music. He returned to the band a few times over the years to record the occasional song.
Willis was out of the band for several decades, but a few years ago he won a legal battle that gave him control of the rights to the band’s name and songs. The members of the band who had toured the world for many decades had to start performing under a different name while Willis put back on his policeman outfit and brought in new performers to be the Native American, Biker, Army Guy, Workman and Cowboy.
After Willis launched his revamped version of the band, one of their first live shows was here in Perth, and it got dismal reviews.
Over the last few years the iconic song has become a theme tune for US President Donald Trump who plays it at his campaign rallies while he delivers his signature awkward dance moves.
In his latest rant on social media Willis defended allowing President Trump to use the song in his campaign, while noting he’s making a lot of royalties of the renewed popularity of the tune. One thing he says he won’t stand for is people saying the song is a gay anthem.
Willis said it was wrong of people to assume that because his songwriting partner the late Jacques Morali was gay, many members of the band were gay, and the first Village People album “was totally about gay life”, that there was a gay subtext to Y.M.C.A.
“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 said.
Willis said people were only describing it as a gay anthem in attempt to shame President Trump.
“As I stated on numerous occasions, I knew nothing about the Y being a hang out 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.
“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.” Willis insisted.
The band leader said he was serious this time about suing media outlets if they call his song a gay anthem, but he didn’t mind if LGBTIQA+ people considered the song a gay anthem.
“Therefore, 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. 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.” Willis said.
Willis is yet to comment on whether there is any gay subtext to Go West, In the Navy, Macho Man, I Am What I Am, or I’m a Cruiser.
