One of the most annoying things we see play out during political contests is when singers and bands get their knickers in a twist over a candidate they don’t like using their music, whether it be during a campaign stop, in an ad, or what have you.
For instance, I remember in 2008 when Heart had a near-complete meltdown over then-GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin using their wildly popular 1977 hit “Barracuda” (which was Palin’s nickname in Alaska) as her theme song at McCain-Palin events. One of the band’s lead singers, Nancy Wilson, wigged out when talking about the band’s initial demand to get them to stop using their music.
“I think it’s completely unfair to be so misrepresented,” Wilson whined at the time. “I feel completely f***ed over.”
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As RedState readers know, President-Elect Donald Trump has made the Village People’s song “YMCA” (and the “Trump Dance” he does with it) a staple at many of his campaign events over the years, along with some of their other songs. Naturally, Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers have objected to this and have made thousands of requests to the band to get him to stop.
But as we previously reported, though the band initially tried to do just that, they’ve since stopped because apparently, they recognized at some point that an old song having a modern-day revival of sorts and shooting up the charts again in the process is good for their bottom line.
On Monday, lead singer Victor Willis spoke out once more on his Facebook page and provided a more detailed explanation for why he as the songwriter decided to back off getting the President-Elect to stop playing their songs:
However, the use continued because the Trump campaign knew they had obtained a political use license from BMI and absent that license being terminated, they had every right to continue using Y.M.C.A. And they did.
In fact, I started noticing numerous artists withdrawing the President Elect’s use of their material. But by the time I said to my wife one day, hey, “Trump” seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.
As such, I simply didn’t have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song in the face of so many artists withdrawing his use of their material. So I told my wife to inform BMI to not withdraw the Trump campaign political use license. My French partners were contemplating legal action out of France. So I had my wife contact our French partners and asked them to stay out of the Trump campaign’s use of Y.M.C.A. because it is a U.S. matter, and I will make the decision on his use. Our French partners quickly backed off of their objection to his use.
Y.M.C.A. has benefited greatly from use by the President Elect. For example, Y.M.C.A. was stuck at #2 on the Billboard chart prior to the President Elect’s use. However, the song finally made it to #1 on a Billboard chart after over 45 years (and held on to #1 for two weeks) due to the President Elect’s use.
The financial benefits have been great as well as Y.M.C.A. 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 Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.
Willis also noted that starting in 2025, he was going to start suing any news organization that referred to “YMCA” as a “gay anthem”:
So, to the extent that Y.M.C.A. is considered a gay anthem based on the fact that gays once used certain YMCA’s for elicit activity, the assumption that the song alludes to that is completely misguided.
[…]
Therefore, since I wrote the lyrics and ought to know what the lyrics I wrote is really about, come January 2025, my wife will start suing each and every news organization that falsely refers to Y.M.C.A., either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit activity for which it does not. However, I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem.
I don’t know how Willis is going to fare with taking the media outlets to court over that issue. But I do know that if I was a singer I’d probably be like him in being okay with candidates I didn’t like using my music at their events, because there would be the potential to profit bigly off of them.
And then I’d turn around and use the money to help candidates and causes I do support. That, in my view, would sort of be a win-win for everyone, right?
In the meantime, enjoy this Trump Dance montage:
Victor Willis, the singer behind YMCA thanks Trump using his song and says the song has “benefited greatly” from his use.pic.twitter.com/SuZJgYXEZm
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) December 3, 2024
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