(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) Village People founding member Victor Willis announced he changed his stance on allowing President-elect Donald Trump to use the iconic “Y.M.C.A.” song.
In a Thursday interview with Fox & Friends First, Willis explained how he came to that decision after years of wanting the president-elect to stop using the song.
“I decided to allow the president-elect’s continued use of ‘Y.M.C.A.’ because he seems to genuinely, genuinely like the song and so many other artists were stopping him from using their music,” he said.
In a Monday Facebook post, Willis added he grew tired of receiving thousands of complaints over Trump using the tune that he requested he stop playing it in 2020.
He said he thought about pulling the Trump campaign’s political use license of the song but ultimately decided against it.
Willis said he has financially benefited from the resurgence of the song and thanked Trump for using it.
"He seems to genuinely like the song."
Village People singer Victor Willis says he allowed President-elect Trump to keep using "YMCA" because it brought "so much joy" to Americans.c pic.twitter.com/2Igbp9GQq6
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 5, 2024
“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,” he wrote. “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.”
Willis discussed whether or not he would perform the iconic hit at Trump’s inauguration.
“If you were to ask me today if the Village People would perform at the inauguration, I would probably say not because we’d be concerned about endorsement,” he told Fox News.
The songwriter added that if asked it would be something to seriously think about.
“However, because the president-elect has done so much for ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and brought so much joy to so many people, the song has actually gone back to No. 1, and it’s still No. 1 today,” he continued, “so if he were to ask the Village People to perform the song live for him, we’d have to seriously consider it.”
