Village People Founder Tells Fox News Why He Endorsed Trump’s Use of ‘Y.M.C.A.’: ‘Bringing So Much Joy To the American People’

Village People founding member Victor Willis explained to Fox News that he endorsed President-elect Donald Trump’s frequent use of their song Y.M.C.A. in spite of his initial condemnation of it because he saw Trump was “bringing so much joy to the American people.”

Willis joined Todd Piro on Fox & Friends First on Thursday and said changing his tune on Trump using the song came down to seeing the effect it was having.

“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. “So I decided to contact BMI [Broadcast Music, Inc.] and told them not to terminate his political use license because he seemed to be bringing so much joy to the American people with his use of Y.M.C.A.”

In 2020, Willis requested Trump stop using not just Y.M.C.A., but also their hit Macho Man. Willis noted on Thursday that Trump’s use of Y.M.C.A. had propelled it forward on the Billboard charts despite being decades old.

Willis even kept the door open to performing at Trump’s inauguration, though he said the band would be concerned about appearing to endorse the Republican. He explained they previously wanted to steer clear of politics.

“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 said.

The performer added, however, that the success they’ve been had because of Trump would make them “seriously consider” performing at the event.

“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 number one, and it’s still number one today, so if he were to ask the Village People to perform the song live for him, we’d have to seriously consider it,” he said.

Watch above via Fox News.