Village People’s Victor Willis Admits to ‘Double Entendre’ in ‘Y.M.C.A.,’ But Insists the Song Isn’t About Sex
Written by djfrosty on February 13, 2025
Village People frontman Victor Willis is clearing the air after he sent a cease and desist to Jim Jeffries, after the comedian joked on his At This Moment podcast that the 1978 classic “Y.M.C.A.” is about men “f—ing in showers in a hostel.”
Willis joined TMZ‘s 2 Angry Men podcast this week, where hosts Harvey Levin and Mark Geragos asked the singer about his song being a “gay anthem.”
“He went over the line when he got into saying it had to do with men having sex in the bathroom,” Willis said of sending Jeffries a cease and desist for what was described as an “obscene, derogatory and false description” of the track. “There is nothing in my lyrics that says anything about that. We approached him and he apologized and said he was going to rephrase what it was he said and say it differently, because the way he said it as worded was defamatory.”
Trending on Billboard
However, Levin then followed up by noting that a number of lyrics in “Y.M.C.A.” could be interpreted in different ways, including the chorus: “It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A./ They have everything for young men to enjoy/ You can hang out with all the boys.”
In response, Willis pointed out that the dual meaning was his intention. “That was something that I credited myself on is writing my songs with what is called a double entendre,” he said. “I would write a song to where you can take it any kind of way you wanted it. If you’re straight, you can take the lyrics for somebody straight or if you were gay, you could take it for somebody gay.”
When Willis insisted that “there’s like 10% of the gay community that have been coming to my shows and have been there over the past 10 years,” Levin and Geragos insisted that the number would be higher.
Last month, Village People performed at the Liberty Ball during Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations, as both “Macho Man” and “Y.M.C.A.” were popular song choices at Trump campaign rallies during his 2020 and 2024 campaign rallies.
In December, Willis doubled down on why he chose to let the president-elect play “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies and events, saying he “didn’t have the heart” to block the usage — despite originally asking Trump to stop in 2020 — upon realizing that the politician seemed to “genuinely like” the track and was “having a lot of fun” with “Y.M.C.A.” Plus, as Willis noted, the dance tune has only “benefited greatly” in terms of chart placements and sales since Trump incorporated it into his campaign.
In the same post, Willis denounced the song’s status as a “gay anthem,” threatening legal action against news organizations that referred to the song as such. “Get your minds out of the gutter. It is not [a gay anthem] … such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to [illicit] activity for which it does not,” he said.