Village People singer’s threat to sue over Y.M.C.A. being called a ‘gay anthem’

The man who wrote the ’70s disco hit Y.M.C.A has written a lengthy Facebook post about the song, including a bizarre threat to sue.

Village People member and lyricist of the group’s disco classic Y.M.C.A. has said he will sue anyone who calls the ’70s hit a “gay anthem”.

Victor Willis made the bizarre threat in a lengthy Facebook post, claiming the label is “defamatory and damaging to the song”.

The 73-year-old musician also defended US President-elect Donald Trump playing it at his campaign rallies because “he seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it”.

Willis co-wrote the 1978 global hit with French producer Jacque Morali who helped create the Village People, inspired by the characters he found in New York’s gay clubs.

But in the bewildering post, the famous group’s “policeman” said that because the song’s co-author and some members of the Village People were gay, millions of people who love the song had the “false assumption” it is a “gay anthem”.

Y.M.C.A. not a gay anthem? Willis will be claiming In The Navy is a recruitment campaign next.

“To the extent that Y.M.C.A. is considered a gay anthem based on the fact that gays once used certain YMCAs for (illicit) activity, the assumption that the song alludes to that, is completely misguided,” Willis wrote.

“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 organisation that falsely refers to 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.

“However, I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem.”

Willis also doesn’t mind the estimated “several millions dollars” in royalties earned since Mr Trump added Y.M.C.A to his rally playlist.

The songwriter previously attempted to stop Mr Trump’s use of the song when he was deluged with complaints in 2020, but found the campaign had acquired the necessary license for the public broadcast of the track at political events.

Donald Trump getting his groove on to Y.M.C.A. at a rally. Picture: AFP.

Mr Trump has regularly been filmed dancing in his memeworthy style to the disco hit.

Willis, who publicly supported the Kamala Harris campaign, said he felt sorry for the Republican candidate because other artists refused to allow him to play their songs.

As Mr Trump’s plays ramped up during the election campaign, so Y.M.C.A. rose up the charts, finally making it to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart more than four decades after its release and spending two weeks at the top.

Willis said in the post his lyrics were inspired by the things he knew about Y.M.C.A.s in urban 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,” he wrote.

Reaction among his 167,000 Facebook followers was divided between Trump supporters cheering his stance and fans disappointed he had dismissed the song’s history as a “gay anthem”.

Originally published as Village People singer’s threat to sue over Y.M.C.A. being called a ‘gay anthem’