A 1978 Village People single, a disco track about the Young Men's Christian Association with a chorus accompanied by a widely-known arm-spelling dance.
Composition
YMCA was written by Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo, and Victor Willis. The lyric references the Young Men’s Christian Association, the international Christian welfare organization, often interpreted as having additional layers of meaning for the late-1970s LGBTQ+ community.
Reception
Released in late 1978, the single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number one on the UK Singles Chart, and number one in over a dozen other countries. It became one of the best-selling singles of the disco era.
Legacy
The dance accompanying the chorus, in which audiences spell out the letters Y, M, C, A with their arms, became one of pop music’s most-recognized audience movements. The song was added to the U.S. National Recording Registry in 2020.
Find more songs by letter
YMCA starts with Y and ends with A. Browse other songs along the same letter.
Songs that contain a letter from "YMCA":