from the gay anthem to the crudest cynicism

The new president of the United States has seized on the disco hit from the late 1970s, once a symbol of the homosexual community. A surprising reappropriation that the group found nothing wrong with.

Treason or pure opportunism? The announcement of the participation of the Village People as featured guests – alongside country pop singer Carrie Underwood (whose hit Before He Cheats castigated infidelity) – at Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, outraged more than one. How ? The group, famous above all for the disco anthem YMCA, has it not, for more than forty-five years, been one of the symbols, if only through the stereotypical looks claimed by its members, of homosexual culture?

The American group, created by French producers Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali in 1977, was even named in reference to Greenwich Village, a New York hotspot for the gay community. And YMCA, before being followed by the no less unifying and easily connoted In the Navy or Go West, has always been interpreted as an ode to youth hostels exclusively reserved for men, an ideal meeting place for males looking for company. Disco, it's no secret, took off well before the universal and heteronormative explosion of Saturday Night Fever, in gay clubs and discotheques. This audience was therefore targeted as a priority by most producers of the genre. And Morali and Belolo, even more than others.

A nice reversal of the cover

But… if the five other members dressed in emblematic costumes inspired by the drawings of Tom of Finland (the Indian, the leather biker, the cowboy, the construction worker and the soldier…) had actually been enlisted in the community gay, Victor Willis (the captain), the lead singer and lyricist, was a “pure straight guy”. Who today claims that his song did not have the slightest homo connotation. He is now threatening to sue anyone who suggests otherwise. We're just surprised that it took him so long to react in this way, happy until then to enjoy the lucrative image and message associated with the title and the group in general.

But now, Donald Trump has seized the song, which has since become the most consensual and annoying of disco hits, for his meetings and rallies. And unlike so many other artists who were embarrassed, even outraged, by this reappropriation, the group, which nevertheless claimed to have had a preference for Kamala Harris, found nothing to complain about. And even saw the opportunity for a nice twist on the cover in the form of a reverse coming out. A turnaround very much in tune with the times, where anti-wokism is on the rise, in the wake of Elon Musk. The richest man in the world was a supporter of Joe Biden in 2019, before declaring himself a very active supporter of the current “president elect”, to the point of becoming his damned soul (unless it is the opposite) . In other words, a gesture marked by formidable opportunism on the part of Willis. So totally consistent with the cynicism and lack of morality now in power.