Village People Star Says 'YMCA's Gay Anthem Label 'Hurting' Song

TMZ

Victor Willis, who is best known for being a founding member of the Village People, is calling out the media for perpetuating the idea that "Y.M.C.A." is a gay anthem.

Transcript

00:00Before I give my point of view on this, your point of view is way more important.

00:07So why do you have a problem with people calling YMCA a gay anthem?

00:13People can, I don't mind people thinking if they want to take it as their anthem, it's

00:17fine.

00:18But when the media starts saying, every time they open up with a situation about talking

00:25about the Village People song YMCA, they start saying, yeah, the Gay Anthem, the Village

00:32People Gay Anthem, YMCA, or they put it anywhere in context about it being a gay anthem, those

00:41are things that, that you're playing the song and they're hurting the song.

00:46And it kind of upsets me because I'm the writer of the lyrics and the singer and I didn't

00:51say anything about anything gay.

00:53You say it's hurting the song when people introduce it that way.

00:56And by the way, I mean, I agree with Harvey.

00:59I don't even know why anybody would introduce it as Gay Anthem YMCA.

01:03It's just sort of socially known as that.

01:06You don't even have to say it.

01:08But why do you feel it's hurting the song if people introduce it that way?

01:13Well, it's because the media is the media.

01:17There are people that they believe anything you say, the media, they watch, they'll watch

01:25TV, they'll watch your show and anything that if you say this, that, you know, this is this,

01:31they believe it.

01:32I mean, you know, if you say birds don't fly, they'll believe it because you said it.

01:37When you kind of parse the words from YMCA, it feels like it's all double entendres.

01:41They're all double entendres.

01:43I mean, and you you're so talented.

01:46You must have known the double entendres of the whole song.

01:51You know, hang out with all the boys, do whatever you feel, all of that stuff.

01:56You got to know that it's going to be received in a certain way in different communities.

02:01Of course.

02:02I mean, you know, basically that was something because of my lifestyle and Jacques's lifestyle.

02:09I tried to write the songs open, which is something that I tried to specialize in was

02:15writing basically in a double entendre.

02:19But again, when I wrote the lyrics to YMCA, I can only write what it was that I knew about

02:27the YMCA.

02:28And if Jacques, for example, my writing partner, has said to me, well, write the song and make

02:36sure you put something in there about gay life or whatever.

02:40I probably would have said, well, look, Jacques, you don't need me to write it, write it yourself

02:43then because but Jacques never ever bothered me about my lyrics.

02:46Look, I you know, I'm a gay guy and I was in my 20s when your song came out.

02:54And I can tell you with my friends and my community and other people outside of my community,

03:01everybody kind of thought of it as a gay anthem.

03:04And it kind of reminds me to give you an example.

03:07Leslie Gore, a long time ago, wrote a song called You Don't Own Me.

03:11And that was just a song about a girl.

03:15But it became a feminist anthem, even though she didn't necessarily write it as a feminist

03:20anthem.

03:21But a lot of people took it that way.

03:23So if people like me and others think of it as a gay anthem, even if you didn't write

03:29it that way and you can look beyond it, shouldn't that be kind of a good thing?

03:34Well, it's fine with me.

03:36I mean, if that's how you want to accept it, that's fine with me.

03:41But if you if you want to go into the looking at it as another, my other way of looking

03:47at it is, for example, you take any playlist and any of the gay bars or the gay music places

03:56or their parades, et cetera.

03:59YMCA is not on the list.

04:02But if you want to if you go to the list playlist of weddings, if you go to play the list of

04:08weddings or sports events, bar mitzvahs, movie productions or commercials, YMCA is on the

04:17list.

04:18Well, well, well, it was on the list when I was when I was in my.

04:23Yeah.

04:24I mean, Victor, I agree with you that it is on the list that all those other things, sporting

04:27events, you hear it.

04:28I mean, it's a song that goes beyond just being a gay anthem.

04:32But for the gay community, it does feel like an anthem.

04:35It has been for almost 50 years now.

04:38So I'm just curious, like if you were going to sue a media outlet, what would the have

04:43you spoken to lawyers about what the lawsuit would would be?

04:46I haven't gotten into that and I wouldn't have to speak.

04:50I wouldn't have to speak anywhere but to my wife because she's a lawyer.

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