Village People On Trump: “His Abusive Use Of Our Music Has Finally Ended”

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Village People On Trump: “His Abusive Use Of Our Music Has Finally Ended”

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

There were many, many things about Donald Trump’s presidency, and one of those things was Trump’s persistent use of the Village People. At rallies, Trump would persistently play “Macho Man” and “YMCA,” the two late-’70s hit singles from the outwardly gay New York disco group. Sometimes, he would bust out strange, clumsy dance moves. Yesterday, Trump threw himself a goodbye ceremony while leaving the White House, and he again played those two songs. When Trump boarded the helicopter to depart the White House, “YMCA” was still playing.

During Trump’s presidency, most of the Village People were unhappy with Trump’s use of their songs, but not all of them. Victor Willis, the Cop, won the rights to the Village People name in 2017, and he sometimes tweeted approvingly about Trump using those songs and about the iTunes bumps that followed. Talking to Rolling Stone last year, though, Willis said, “I’ve consistently stated that neither me, nor Village People, endorsed his use of our music and we did demand he cease and desist back in June. However, copyright law made it possible for him to ignore us. As a result, we were never in a position to bring a viable suit in an attempt to stop his use… Admittedly though, his use resulted in ‘YMCA’ returning to the charts after over 40 years. So, I have to at least credit his campaign for this resurgence.” Other members of the group were less conflicted in their disapproval.

Today, according to TMZ, the group made a statement about Trump and about the copyright laws that allowed him to keep using those songs:

We asked him to cease and desist long ago. However, since he’s a bully, our request was ignored… Thankfully he’s now out of office, so it would seem his abusive use of our music has finally ended. We hope to spearhead a change in copyright law that will give artists and publishers more control over who can and cannot use our music in the public space. Currently there is no limit to blanket licensing.

Artists like Neil Young and Eddy Grant did attempt to sue Trump over using their songs at campaign rallies. Young dropped his lawsuit in December.

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