The man who wrote the YMCA song has now said that if President Trump would like him to do it, they will preform the song live for him at his inauguration ceremony in January. When Trump first started using the song and doing the “Trump Shimmy”, the song writer was against Trump using his song, but he understood that the Trump people had cleared it for their use before they played it at rallies. Now, he has come out and said that the song is great for Trump to use, and he is very happy about this. He said that the highest it made it on the charts was number two, and now, 45 years later, the song hit number one on the charts and stayed there for over two weeks, just because Trump plays it at rallies, and now people everywhere are doing the trump dance to the song. He also said it is not intended as a “gay anthem”, which some people described it as being. He said that he just wrote what he knew about how the ymca worked , and that he had no idea that gays congregated there when he wrote the song. But since some of the Village People were gay, apparently people started thinking that was what the song was about.
It's fun to M-A-G-A ... Someone could figure out a move for the letter 'G' and tweak the lyrics some. Could be a new hit!
I read a recent interview with Victor Willis; he basically said he has made millions off of the royalties from Trump using the song, so he no longer "opposes" it. From Forbes... "In an October 2024 statement to Billboard, Willis said he has “in the past opposed Trump’s use of ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and we have made this very clear to him,” but stated he no longer opposes his use of the song because it has commercially benefitted him."
I once stayed at what was reputed to be the largest YMCA in the world--the Sloane House in New York. Four of us traveled by bus form our little town in NW Pennsylvania to spend time at the 1964 World's Fair. It was quite and adventure. It was said to be a hangout for Gays even then, but we had no problems and no one approached us in any way. It was by far the cheapest place to stay in NYC. The YMCA closed in my old home town, but the YWCA is still open.
When I was stationed in San Diego (Navy), I would get a room at the Armed Forces YMCA for the weekend. The room wasn't anything to brag about, but it was better than staying onboard the ship. A bed is always much better than a Navy bunk. On Friday night, there was a USO Dance also. Young ladies would volunteer to come in that night and dance with the sailors. There was an Armed Forces YMCA in Long Beach, California also. They would set up fold-up beds in a large room and sailors could rent that bed for the night or weekend. They would also hold a USO Dance there, but theirs was on Saturday night. Off and on, for a few years, after I got out of the Navy, I would stay at the YMCA Hotel in both Santa Ana and in Long Beach. Neither of these were designated "military". I never had a problem staying at any of these.