CNN
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The Village People’s lyricist and lead singer has hit out on the “false assumption” that the band’s largest hit, “YMCA,” is a “homosexual anthem.”
Victor Willis, who headed up the Nineteen Seventies disco band and wrote the music with producer Jacques Morali, has taken to social media to insist that it was not written with the homosexual neighborhood in thoughts – and that those that counsel in any other case may quickly face authorized motion.
“There’s been quite a lot of discuss, particularly of late, that Y.M.C.A. is in some way a homosexual anthem,” Willis, who wrote the lyrics for the 1978 hit, stated on Facebook on Monday. “As I’ve stated quite a few instances up to now, that could be a false assumption based mostly on the truth that my writing associate was homosexual, and a few (not all) of Village People had been homosexual, and that the primary Village People album was completely about homosexual life.
“This assumption can also be based mostly on the truth that the YMCA was apparently getting used as some kind of homosexual hangout and since one of many writers was homosexual and among the Village People are homosexual, the music should be a message to homosexual folks. To that I say as soon as once more, get your minds out of the gutter. It will not be.”
The music, from the band’s third studio album, “Cruisin,’” has spent years as a casual anthem of the LGBTQ neighborhood. But it has additionally been extra lately embraced by Donald Trump, who has been taking part in it at presidential marketing campaign rallies. A latest video posted on-line confirmed the president-elect dancing to the hit with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Mar-A-Lago over Thanksgiving.
Like many others within the music trade, together with ABBA and the Foo Fighters, Willis initially objected to his music being utilized by Trump. But in his Facebook publish he gave the president-elect his blessing to make use of the music, which has surged as soon as once more in recognition, topping the Billboard chart for digital gross sales of dance and digital music this week.
The YMCA – whose full title is the Young Men’s Christian Association – was initially arrange as a non-political Christian motion in London in 1844. Commonly known as “the Y,” it has since develop into a worldwide group the place males are welcome to return and train, play sport and search shelter.
Willis stated that when writing the music he had no concept that the YMCA was “a hang around for gays.”
He stated: “I subsequently wrote Y.M.C.A. in regards to the issues I knew in regards to the Y within the city areas of San Francisco resembling swimming, basketball, monitor, and low-cost meals and low-cost rooms. And after I say, ‘hang around with all of the boys’ that’s merely Nineteen Seventies black slang for black guys hanging-out collectively for sports activities, playing or no matter. There’s nothing homosexual about that.
“So, to the extent that Y.M.C.A. is taken into account a homosexual anthem based mostly on the truth that gays as soon as used sure YMCA’s for elicit exercise, the idea that the music alludes to that’s fully misguided.”
Willis’ emotions on the matter are so robust that he’s now threatening authorized motion over the difficulty.
He continued: “Since I wrote the lyrics and should know what the lyrics I wrote is actually about, come January 2025, my spouse will begin suing each information group that falsely refers to Y.M.C.A., both of their headlines or alluded to within the base of the story, that Y.M.C.A. is in some way a homosexual anthem as a result of such notion is predicated solely on the music’s lyrics alluding to elicit exercise for which it doesn’t. However, I don’t thoughts that gays consider the music as their anthem.
“But you’d be hard-pressed to search out Y.M.C.A. on the play listing at any homosexual membership, parade or different homosexual exercise in a manner that will counsel it’s in some way an anthem to the neighborhood apart from alluding to illicit exercise, which is defamatory, and damaging to the music. But it stops in 2025.”
