A former member of Village People has distanced himself from the band that performed at Donald Trump’s inauguration events, stating that the current group has “nothing to do with the group that I was a part of”.
Village People, whose song YMCA is widely considered a gay anthem and a favorite of the returning US president’s, performed at several of Trump’s inaugural events over the weekend and on Monday. However, only one original member, the lead singer and songwriter Victor Willis, 73, is still part of the band and participated in the performances.
Jim Newman, a former Village People band member, addressed his followers on Instagram last week ahead of the inauguration, and argued that the Village People that performed at Trump’s inaugural events was not the original group.
“Our Village People would never, ever perform at Trump rally,” Newman said. “We would never give him the right to use those songs, and we would never slap the face of the strong, especially gay audience, that made us who we are today.”
In the caption of the post, Newman added: “Neither myself or any of my band mates will be performing at Trump’s rallies,” adding that the current band is a “entirely separate entity than the long Storied Village People I had the honor of being in for 8 years”.
“It’s sad to watch what has happened to the Village People brand,” Newman said.
Village People formed in the late 1970s when two French producers, known collectively as Can’t Stop Productions, put out a casting call.
Willis was one of the founding members of the band, serving as lead singer and songwriter for several years, before departing the band in 1980, and again in 1983 after temporarily rejoining the group.
Willis, who wrote the lyrics to YMCA, then rejoined the band more than 30 years later in 2017 following legal battles and an out-of-court settlement with the production company. Willis was awarded rights to the band name and characters, and resumed his role as lead singer, returning with a new group of background singers.
In his video last week, Newman said that the “band had been around forever” and that “a lot” of original members were still a part of it until Willis took it back over.
Willis “started a new group, and that is the Village People that performs”, Newman said.
The current members are Willis, James Kwong, Jeffrey James Lippold, James Lee, Nicholas Manelick, and Javier Perez.
Willis has made headlines in recent years for denying that the hit 1978 song YMCA is a gay anthem, as well as for first condemning Trump’s use of the song during his campaigns, and later embracing it, claiming the “financial benefits have been great”.
In a social media post in December, Willis explained that he had initially asked Trump to stop using YMCA years ago because he received “over a thousand complaints”, and Trump’s use of the song had become a “nuisance” for him.
However, Willis said that Trump continued using the song because his campaign had legally obtained a political use license.
Willis said that over time, he noticed that Trump appeared to “genuinely like YMCA” and was “having a lot of fun with it”.
He added: “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.”
The song has “benefited greatly” from Trump’s use of it, Willis wrote in a post, adding that the song reached No 1 on the Billboard chart after over 45 years, “due to the President Elect’s use”.
