Village People: An Internal Diatribe on the True Meaning of the YMCA
The song “YMCA” of the Village Peoplea disco and wedding dance floor classic, has become a staple of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
This week Victor Williswho dresses as a policeman or naval officer during Village People shows, thanked Trump for using the song and threatened to sue any media outlet that described the song as a “gay anthem.”
Willis had already expressed his opposition to considering the group’s most successful song as a gay anthem in the past (Read here).
However, one of his (former) bandmates expressed an opposite position.
David Hodothe Village People’s construction worker, wrote on Facebook about the producer’s crucial role Jacques Morali in the writing of “YMCA” (1978 song). Morali was gay, died of AIDS in 1991, and brought together the Village People to portray gay and flamboyant fictional characters, represented by the “categories” cop, factory worker, Native American, biker, soldier and cowboy.
According to Hodo (now no longer in the band), Morali was specifically inspired to write the song by interactions with gay porn stars who trained at the YMCA. Hodo also disputes Willis’s view that “YMCA” survived because of the song’s great writing and not the accompanying dancing, developed on American Bandstand.
Here’s what he wrote:
To be clear, there would be no YMCA song without Jacques Morali. The idea for the hook, like that of all VP’s music, came to him after Randy Jones took him to a YMCA and introduced him to some gay porn stars who worked there. It is only slightly nauseating to hear Willis speak as if he were Stephen Sondheim (composer and lyricist, who passed away in 2021, is considered one of the most important authors in the musical theater scene, a fundamental element in the development of the modern musical genre). YMCA would have permanently disappeared from the charts if it weren’t for the fact that the guys from American Bandstand invented the arm movements. It’s because of that stupid dance that this song survived, not because of its “brilliant” writing.
Willis responded with a Facebook post of his own, in which he points out that Hodo was not the original Village People construction worker, claims that Morali hated Hodo, and orders, “Go back to your hole before I crush you again.”
Here is the full text of the post
Well, well, well, what do we have here. David Hodo comes out of his lair to comment on me and my writing partner Jacques Morali. First of all David, Jacques hated you and you know it. So I wouldn’t give much importance to anything you have to say about me and Jacques. So, get back in your hole before I crush you again, you (non-original) Village People replacement who lied for years about being an original. The original construction worker is Mark Mussler (RIP) and don’t forget that.
Nothing new because between Willis and Hodo there has been a war that has been going on for years and these declarations will certainly not lead to a future peace treaty.
The song’s second life dates back to early 2020, during Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, when his team chose a song associated with the LGBT community for rallies, sparking controversy among conservative supporters.
The Village People initially agreed to use the song, but in June 2020 frontman Victor Willis asked Trump not to use it. Despite this, the campaign continued to use it, and Willis, seeing positive effects, decided not to cancel the license. In 2024, the song reached the Top 15 on Billboard’s dance/electronic chart and, after Trump’s election victory, took first place.
Meanwhile on social media there is discussion about the song and a user “The YMCA will NEVER be MAGA (Make America Great Again, Trump’s slogan). The real songwriter and creator of the Village People was Jacques Morali, a French gay producer and disco legend who died of AIDS in 1991. He created many classics about fucking between men. MAGA had to borrow the song because no one would lend the rights to theirs.”
There YMCA (initial of Young Men’s Christian Association; Youth Christian Association) is an ecumenical Christian organization, founded in London in 1844) which aims to provide support to young people and their activities. Over time the purposes have changed and currently the local YMCAs are almost only a community of sports centers, which have little to do with the religious origins of the movement.
The Village People were born in 1977, from an idea of the French composer Jacques Morali who came into contact with Victor Willis in a recording studio. Willis sang on the first album, the self-titled “Village People.” From that success Morali and his partner Henri Belolo they decided to form a disco group around Willis. Morali and Belolo (who passed away in 2019) were already responsible, in 1975, for the birth of another successful project in the disco music period: The Ritchie Family.
