How Village People went from disowning Trump to headlining his inauguration

A: Village People were the brainchild of two French music producers, Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, who were well-versed in the disco scene of 1970s New York. One night, the pair were at the Anvil, an after-hours gay club in the Meatpacking District, and saw Felipe Rose dancing in Native American garb (his father was Lakota) and being watched by a man in a cowboy outfit.

“We said, ‘My God, look at those characters,’” Belolo told disco-disco.com in 2000. “So we started to fantasise on what were the characters of America. The mix, you know, of the American man.”

So they placed an ad in a trade paper: “Macho Types Wanted for World-Famous Disco Group – Must Dance and Have a Moustache.”

Q: This village … is it real? Where is it?

A: That would be Greenwich Village, a gay bastion in Manhattan where Morali and Belolo saw those “macho types” in the 1970s – and where tourists today go for selfies outside the homes of Carrie Bradshaw and Taylor Swift.

Q: Greenwich Village … dance music … moustaches… so Village People were totally gay, right?

A: Wasn’t everyone, in the late ’70s?

Over the years, Village People have had gay and straight members, and Morali, the co-founding producer, was gay. David Hodo (the construction worker) told Rolling Stone in 1979: “We as a group don’t like labels, don’t like black-white, straight-gay, disco-rock & roll.”

Q: Speaking of labels, do Village People support Trump?

A: The group’s “preferred candidate” was Kamala Harris, according to founding member Victor Willis (the cop), but he recognises that, if she had won, Village People would not be performing.

“She would have chosen the likes of John Legend and Beyonce, etc.,” Willis wrote in a long Facebook post last week, adding that Village People’s participation in Trump’s inauguration festivities is not an endorsement of his policies.

But “one man has done a lot for Village people lately,” Willis wrote. “His name is Donald J. Trump. He has brought a lot of joy to the American people with his use of Y.M.C.A. And you want Village People to push all that aside and not perform at his inauguration? NEGATIVE! We’re doing the right thing by performing and keeping political views out of this. So, please stop pushing your political views onto Village People.”

Q: Has Willis spoken out against Trump before?

A: Yes. Back in 2020, when law enforcement violently dispersed protesters in Lafayette Square to make way for a Trump photo op, Willis posted on Facebook that if Trump ordered the military to fire on U.S. citizens, the country would rise up against him. In the same post, he asked Trump not to use Y.M.C.A. or Macho Man (or any of Willis’s music) at his rallies. “Sorry, but I can no longer look the other way,” Willis wrote.

In May 2023, after a video of Trump dancing to Macho Man at Mar-a-Lago circulated on social media, band manager Karen Willis (Victor’s wife) sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s lawyer, Rolling Stone reported at the time. There’s no indication that Trump desisted, or that Willis persisted.

Q: So what changed?

A: After Trump’s recent win, Willis said he didn’t mind Y.M.C.A. playing at rallies, because Trump “seems to genuinely like the song” and it was bringing joy to people. In December, Willis went on Fox News in his black leather jacket, bike helmet and sunglasses. He said that, because Trump had “done so much” for the song – it has indeed climbed the Billboard charts again – the group would “seriously consider” performing it for Trump if he asked.

Q: So that’s how Village People became the de facto headliner of these inauguration festivities?

A: Seems like it. The Trump team sent an email to Karen Willis, Victor told TMZ last week. The band members decided that it was their duty to “help unite the country by doing Y.M.C.A. at the inauguration, for Democrats as well as Republicans.”

Q: Okay, let’s step back. Who were the original Village People?

A: Willis was first, and five guys were recruited as backup talent for his live appearances. Two of those backups ended up in what became the official group: Alex Briley (the G.I.) and Rose (the Indian, though the role is now referred to as Native American on the band’s website). Glenn Hughes (the leatherman), Randy Jones (the cowboy) and Hodo (the construction worker) made the final cut after they were selected from hundreds who responded to the “Macho Types Wanted” ad.

Q: How many Village People have there been over the years?

A: More than 20, but less than 2000.

Q: Are there any original members who still perform with the group?

A: Yes, one. Willis left the group in 1979 but returned in 2017.

Q: Do people still pay to see the group live?

A: Yes. Their website says 2025 dates are “TBA,” though Ticketmaster has the group performing in Laughlin, Nevada, in March. Last year, Village People performed in South America and the United Kingdom, and did this past New Year’s Eve at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada.

Q: How did Village People become a Trump thing?

A: Macho Man and Y.M.C.A. have long been on the playlist at Trump rallies – and at countless wedding receptions and sports games and b’nai mitzvahs over the past 40-plus years. There is surprisingly little evidence, in newspaper archives, of a profound connection between Trump and the band before he entered politics. But we have a unified field theory about this.

Q: Fine. What is your unified field theory?

A: We’re so glad you asked. Village People, born in New York, hit it big in 1977 and 1978. Y.M.C.A. debuted October 17, 1978. What was Trump doing at that time? Hitting his own stride, as a Manhattan celebrity and real estate mogul. The New York Times had profiled him as “tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth,” looking “ever so much like Robert Redford”.

Q: What does that have to do with anything?

A: Hold on. Trump married Ivana in April 1977; three weeks later, they went to the opening night of Studio 54. In the summer of 1978, Trump launched his first Manhattan project: the renovation of the Commodore Hotel. By autumn, he was making noises about buying the World Trade Center. By winter, he was arranging to buy the landmark Bonwit Teller store, which he would later knock down to build Trump Tower.

Q: Would you get to the point?

A: Trump was 32 when Y.M.C.A. came out. He was young, wealthy, and accruing power and attention. He hobnobbed with the most famous people in America at Studio 54. There’s no doubt that he heard Y.M.C.A. there, in the absolute prime of his life, as his ambitions were beginning to pay off. The world was his oyster. The sky was his limit. And the soundtrack to it all? Village People.

You’d want to live in that moment forever, too, wouldn’t you? (This is all just a theory, mind you.)

Q: But Y.M.C.A. is an anthem about gay cruising, right?

A: In a 2008 oral history of Y.M.C.A. published in Spin magazine, the band members contradicted each other on this subject, with Jones saying: “It’s all a big f—ing mystery.”

In a December 10 Facebook post, Willis had strong words for anyone who claims it’s a gay anthem to shame Trump for using it. Willis said he knew nothing about YMCAs being a popular spot for anonymous gay sex when he wrote the lyrics. “You can hang out with all the boys” was purely a reference to Black men hanging out for sports or gambling.

Q: However …

A: “However,” Willis wrote in a December 2 Facebook post, “I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem.” In January, Willis wrote that if Trump tried to restrict LGBTQ rights in office, “Village People will be the first to speak out”.

The Washington Post