YMCA 'has never been a gay anthem' claims Village People songwriter
6 December 2024, 13:55
Chart-topping single the 'YMCA' has long been hailed as a feel-good anthem for the LGBTQ+ community.
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But now, the man who wrote the song that gave the Village People their biggest hit insists “there’s nothing gay” about the track.
Anyone who thinks YMCA is anything other than an homage to black male friends should “get their minds out the gutter”, songwriter Victor Willis has said.
He wrote the lyrics for the Village People’s international smash hit back in 1978. It went to number 1 in 17 countries and has sold 12 million copies.
Willis has now issued a stark warning decades later for any news outlet daring to misinterpret the heterosexual meaning behind it.
Willis said in a Facebook post: “Come January 2025, my wife will start suing each and every news organisation 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.”
This comes after Willis said received more than 1,000 complaints about the use of YMCA at Donald Trump’s campaign rallies in the US presidential election, questioning whether he knew if it was a gay anthem.
The president-elect, who has been getting down to the Village People hit since the late 70s, started playing the tune out at his 2020 rallies.
“The financial benefits have been great … YMCA is estimated to gross 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 said.
It had previously been widely assumed that the lyrics of YMCA issued advice to young men who were new to a large city to head to the eponymous men’s hostel and gym, where they might get lucky with a member of the same sex.
The line “You can hang out with all the boys” has clearly caused confusion, Willis says.
He says this is actually “simply 1970s Black slang for Black guys hanging out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.”
Willis has said he did not mind that gay people “think of the song as their anthem”. Its universal appeal means it can apply to any type of event and occasion, even Donald Trump’s rallies, he added.
