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From gay clubs to Maga anthem: the absurd, contested history of the Village People’s YMCA
A barely recognizable version of the band performed the 1978 classic at Donald Trump’s inauguration, the latest chapter in a strange tale of disco, feuds and showboating
(When asked recently if the president could stand to learn anything from drag, the performer Bianca Del Rio spluttered: “He’s already wearing makeup, wig and heels.”) At the pre-inauguration event, the six-piece flanked the politician on stage for YMCA while he did his little fist-bumping dance, a move apparently known as the “double jerk”. Trump’s taste skews towards brash 80s – this is a guy who invited Hulk Hogan to the RNC and just named Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sly Stallone Hollywood ambassadors – so his penchant for the YMCA is unsurprising. The song was warmly received by the scene’s chronicler Vince Aletti, who called YMCA’s parent album Cruisin ’ an “essential release” in his iconic Disco File Column in Record World, noting: “Choruses given the impact of a prize fighter’s combination punch.” And the single plowed its way into mass consciousness after an appearance on American Bandstand, where the audience supposedly created a perfectly-synchronized Y-M-C-A dance while the band performed, and 1980’s Razzie-winning pseudo biopic Can’t Stop the Music.
Or read this on The Guardian
