YMCA (song) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
grounds crew pause to do the YMCA dance]]"YMCA" is the title of a joyful and sublimely deadpan 1978 song by The Village People. The song's lyrics extolling the YMCA's virtues for the "young man" has a cheeky gay double meaning about the activities that were taking place at many YMCA branches in the 1970s. It is hard to imagine that most listeners didn't realize the song had a hidden message and instead thought it was simply a musical celebration of the organization:
- ''You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
- You can do... what ever you feel!
The song became a #1 hit everywhere except in the USA, where it lost to Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy"
In 1999, the band rereleased the single and the proceeds were donated to the organization. In 2004, American Idol reject William Hung released a cover version of this song on his first album.
"YMCA" is also the name of a group dance with cheerleader Y-M-C-A choreography invented to fit the song.
"YMCA" in war time
On July 2, 2004, Colin Powell, the Secretary of State of the U.S performed a modified version of YMCA for his fellow foreign government officials at the ASEAN security meeting in Jakarta. His lyrics includes the lines: "President Bush, he said to me: 'Colin, I need you to run the Department of State. We are between a rock and a hard place.' " Colin Powell, a so-called dove with an honorable military record, especially during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is sometimes said to oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq.