The Village People and President-elect Donald Trump have apparently buried the hatchet.
On Monday, lead singer Victor Willis — the iconic disco-music group’s San Diego-based founder and leader — announced Village People had accepted an invitation to perform at multiple Trump inauguration events next week, including at least one that Trump will attend. They a lineup of performers that also includes Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.
The President-elect is a longtime fan of Village People’s enduring 1978 hit, “Y.M.C.A.,” which has long been synonymous with gay pride. Trump has frequently played and danced to the song at his campaign rallies and at parties at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. Village People had previously sent cease-and-desist orders to Trump in a failed attempt to get him to stop playing “Y.M.C.A.” without the group’s permission.
Monday’s inauguration performance announcement comes just two years after the singer Willis’ wife, attorney Karen Willis, sent a separate cease-and-desist letter to Trump. In it, she threatened legal action over unauthorized performances at Mar-a-Lago by a Village People look-alike tribute act. She contended at the time that such performances could potentially violate federal trademark laws by misleading consumers into thinking the real Village People was performing at Trump’s resort.
But that was then. Now, the group behind such enduring hits as “In the Navy” and “Macho Man” is ready to turn the page, after having ed Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election.
In Facebook posts Monday on the Village People’s page and his own Willis’ page, Willis announced that Village People has “accepted an invitation from President Elect Trump’s campaign to participate in inaugural activities, including at least one event with President Elect Trump.”
“We know this won’t make some of you happy to hear,” Willis wrote, “but we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics.
“Our song ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost. Therefore, we believe it’s now time to bring the country together with music.”
The decision drew praise and criticism. As of late Tuesday morning, there were 619 responses on Willis’ Facebook page and 1,200 on the Village People’s page.
“You absolutely did the right thing! Keep politics out of performing your music,” wrote Dawn Schneider Cooper, an Indiana hospice worker, whose sentiments were echoed in other responses.
But Victor Willis’ contention that “music is to be performed without regard to politics” was upsetting to those who object to the Village People’s inauguration performances.
“You can’t put politics aside when it’s those same politics that will strip the LGBTQ, women and others of their rights. You’re not singing at a celebration but a funeral of American values,” wrote Aundaray Guess, the executive director of GIOT Circle, a New York nonprofit dedicated to eliminating all forms of oppression.
Karen Willis declined a Tuesday request from the San Diego Union-Tribune for her husband to discuss his group’s decision to perform at Trump’s inauguration.
However, in a Dec. 2 post on his Facebook page, Victor Willis noted that Village People had benefited both financially and in of visibility from Trump’s fondness for “Y.M.C.A,” a song Willis co-wrote in 1977 with Jacques Morali.
“Y.M.C.A. has benefited greatly from use by the President Elect,” Willis wrote in the post.
“For example, Y.M.C.A. was stuck at #2 on the Billboard chart prior to the President Elect’s use. However, the song finally made it to #1 on a Billboard chart after over 45 years (and held on to #1 for two weeks) due to the President Elect’s use.
“The financial benefits have been great as well as Y.M.C.A. 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 Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”
Even before these recent developments, the success of “Y.M.C.A.” has been formidable.
In March 2020, “Y.M.C.A.” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The registry honors songs or albums that are at least 10 years old at the time of their induction and are deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Victor Willis never imagined “Y.M.C.A.” would be transformed from a disco hit that was especially popular at gay nightclubs into a worldwide musical phenomenon embraced at sporting events and social gatherings.
“Y.M.C.A.,” and the letter-forming arm movements its title inspired, are a staple at wedding receptions, parties and at every New York Yankees’ home game since 1996. The song was colorfully featured in the 1993 movie “Wayne’s World 2.” And on Dec. 31, 2008, the song set a Guinness World Record after 40,148 attendees at the annual Sun Bowl college football game in El Paso performed the largest public “Y.M.C.A.” dance ever.
” ‘Y.M.C.A.’ was written to have universal appeal,” Victor Willis said in a 2020 Union-Tribune interview the week that “Y.M.C.A.” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
“Whether you’re gay, straight, Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter to me. I tried to write it in an open enough way that anybody could find something in it and relate it to their life.”
Last August saw the release of “Goddess of Love,” the first single from the Village People’s new album. The group’s next California concert is March 8 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, seven days after the group performs at a private event in Havana, Cuba.
A South American tour will follow in May. The group will perform July 4 at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, according to the Village People’s website.
