From YMCA to Maga: the policeman and the prez

It was a bizarre sight watching a huge  1970s gay disco hit being performed at Donald Trump's 2025 pre-inauguration rally.

 

Many prominent artists from Beyonce to Bruce Springsteen prohibit Trump from using their music. So why do Village People, a band synonymous with the 1970s gay liberation movement, allow their music to be associated with a political movement that has fixed and repressive ideas about sexual identity and morality?

 

Village People's recent incarnation has had a complicated relationship with the "make America great again" movement (Maga).

 

In 2020, their song YMCA began featuring at Maga anti-lockdown rallies and soon became a prominent song in Trump's re-election campaign.

 

At the time, the band asked Trump not to use their music and later supported Kamala Harris for the presidency in 2024. Since then Village People have dramatically changed tack.

 

To be clear, of the group that performed at Trump's pre-inauguration rally, only one of the original Village People remains.

 

The band, put together by the gay producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo in 1978, was named after New York's Greenwich Village gay scene.

 

In the 1970s, the group was mostly gay-fronted except the first recruit, lead singer and co-songwriter Victor Willis (sometimes the policeman, sometimes the admiral figure).

 

Willis took control of the name and the hits in 2017 after an out-of-court settlement with co-owner Belolo.

 

Willis is now the only member of the original lineup still performing under the official band name.

 

Perhaps to ensure mainstream popularity, he has tried to move Village People away from its gay associations, the biography on the band's website makes no mention of the act's significance to queer audiences.

 

He recently wrote on Facebook he would sue every news organisation that suggested "YMCA is somehow a gay anthem".

 

But it is difficult to untangle Village People from queer history as it was the trend-setting gay community of underground disco culture that made them famous. 

 

Morali put together Village People knowing the band could offer influential gay clubbers something they had always been denied: cultural representation, and with it, acknowledgement of their existence.

 

Village People's innuendos and knowing references to gay culture often went over the heads of many straight listeners. 

 

But skyrocketing into the mainstream made Village People an awkward fit for gay disco culture.

 

This vibrant community wanted their own scene that was not part of the mainstream.

 

They felt betrayed by a band publicly denying their gayness as they juggled the hardcore homosexual audience that had made them famous alongside a family-friendly audience.

 

But even if they became momentarily unpopular in the hottest gay clubs, for many LGBTQ+ people, Village People's hits have endured as anthems played at queer nights and Pride events. In their sound, appearance and sheer 1970-ness, they are undeniably camp icons.

 

Which of course leads many to question why people attending Trump's rallies, hardly famous for their inclusivity, would embrace their music. 

 

One explanation is that Maga audiences simply do not care about past gay associations as the music is simple, catchy and positive.

 

Another is that just like the 1970s, the queer messaging of Village People's music still goes over the heads of straight Maga audiences.

 

Perhaps despite its past gay associations, they are trying to culturally repurpose disco for their own movement. Or  they are trying to be ironic.

 

Most likely, though, the music might have a particular meaning to LGBTQ+ audiences, it has other meanings depending on the context in which it is played.

 

To many, Village People are the epitome of a novelty, apolitical pop group.

 

Their hits are associated with weddings, children's parties and good-time disco.

 

The prosaic truth may be that Trump fans just enjoy a really catchy tune. - theconversation.com