How YMCA became Donald Trump's unlikely anthem
Getty ImagesFollowing the announcement that the Village People would be performing at several upcoming inauguration events, what is it about their songs that appeals to the President-elect?
Village People's YMCA is a high-energy disco hit that encourages young working-class men to meet like-minded individuals at Young Men's Christian Association hostels. It's been interpreted as an ode to the delights of picking up sexual partners at them – it appears on an album entitled Cruisin' – and it was first performed by a group of chiselled dancers sporting moustaches and figure-hugging fancy dress costumes. It's hardly surprising, then, that the song has been so closely associated with gay culture ever since its release in 1978. What is perhaps surprising is that it is now so closely associated with US President-elect Donald Trump.
YMCA is heard again and again at Make America Great Again rallies and Mar-a-Lago fundraisers, and Trump often dances while his supporters sing along. And now the association is to become even closer. This week, it was announced that the Village People themselves would be performing at several inauguration events: he's also a fan of another of their hits, Macho Man. In a political career that isn't short of ironies and contradictions, this one must be near the top of the list.
YMCA was co-written by its French producer, Jacques Morali, and its singer, Victor Willis. A flawless fusion of punchy brass fanfares, spiralling violins, and insistently funky rhythms, the song is so exuberant and catchy that it practically forces you to join in. The accompanying, semaphore-like arm movements, which were added for a performance on the TV show American Bandstand in 1979, make it even harder to resist – although Trump never attempts them. YMCA is the wedding reception song that everyone can sing, the aerobics work-out routine that everyone can try.
But how did it make the jump from parties to politics? In March 2020, the single was certified as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the National Recording Registry of the US Library of Congress – a sure sign that it was no longer seen as subversive or risqué, but as an all-purpose celebration of enjoying yourself with other people. A month later, it was blasted out at anti-lockdown rallies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the protesters switched the letters YMCA to MAGA, and the song became a Trump staple soon afterwards. Whereas some political meetings can seem earnest and dour, Trump takes pride in the perception that his rallies have the populist razzmatazz of a sports match or a rock concert – so Village People's feelgood hit makes sense as their crowd-friendly soundtrack. As the song's lyrics put it, "There's no need to feel down… pick yourself off the ground."
But the link between MAGA and YMCA isn't just about having fun, says Dr A Jamie Saris, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University. "I don't think you can separate Trump and his base from nostalgia," Dr Saris tells the BBC. "They want a do-over. That is, they want to relive certain moments that they have in their brains as when America was great; they just don't want to deal with the contradictions. Disco was problematic for a lot of kids at the time, but now the same people who used to be uncomfortable with it are saying, 'The 1970s were great! My back didn't hurt!'"
Besides, says Dr Saris, the nostalgia inherent in the MAGA movement tips over into camp. "You see these office workers at Trump's rallies dressed up as war veterans and Navy Seals and blue-collar workers." Strange as it seems, their cosplay is not so different from that of the Village People who, with more knowing irony, fetishise supposedly wholesome and honest ways of life by dressing up as a policeman, a soldier, a cowboy, an Indigenous American chief, a construction worker, and a leather-clad biker: what Dr Saris calls "still-admired images of American masculinity".
An 'eclectic' songbook
None of this makes the connection between the song and the politician any less head-scratching: campaign anthems tend to be about patriotism, freedom, and hope for the future, not about hanging out with the boys when you're short on dough. But it's worth noting that Trump's music choices are limited. The list of artists who have objected to the use of their work at his rallies, or have had their lawyrs send cease-and-desist letters, is an extremely long one, which includes Beyoncé, Rihanna, Celine Dion, REM and Aerosmith. When The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army" was played at a rally, Jack White responded on Instagram: "Don't even think about using my music you fascists. Lawsuit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others)." The band has since dropped the lawsuit.
Oddly enough, another name on that list is Victor Willis of the Village People. In June 2020, he announced that he didn't want Trump to play his songs anymore, and in 2023 he sent a cease-and-desist letter after a group dressed as the Village People was seen performing at Mar-a-Lago. Still, numerous individuals who spoke out against Trump in recent years have since changed their minds, and Willis is one of them. "The financial benefits have been great," he pointed out on Facebook in December. "YMCA is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President-elect's continued use of the song. Therefore, I'm glad I allowed the President-elect's continued use of YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song." Incidentally, Willis also announced in that post that he never meant there to be any innuendo in such lyrics as, "I'm sure you will find many ways to have a good time." His wife, he said, would be suing any news organisation which described YMCA as a gay anthem.
Still confused by the sight of a 78-year-old President-elect boogying to a disco number punctuated by the words "Young man"? Well, it could be that this confusion is part of the point: one thing that amuses Donald Trump's supporters and frustrates his detractors is that he doesn't fit neatly into one box. "Trump's musical selections (and they do always seem to be his personal selections) tell us a lot about him," Professor James Garratt, the author of Music and Politics: A Critical Introduction, tells the BBC, "since unlike other politicians, he doesn't seem to care if his choices seem chaotic, random or ideologically inconsistent. This is, after all, a man who has repeatedly switched his political allegiances, and his songbook similarly lurches around eclectically. I don't think that he's trolling liberals by using songs such as YMCA; rather, we're seeing the authentic Trump in all his mixed-up glory."
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