‘Village People Accuse Disney of Underpaying and Ostracizing ‘YMCA’ Band’
Disney ain’t gonna be singing “YMCA” anytime soon — ’cause the wife of the most famous member of the Village People is taking the entertainment behemoth to court … alleging they blackballed the band from booking gigs at its theme parks.
According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Karen Willis — the wife of Victor Willis and manager of the VP trademark for live performances — filed suit against the Mouse House late last year for what she claims was outright hostile treatment of her hubby and another original member.
The issue all stems from a couple performances Willis says the Village People were hired for in 2018 — when she says Disney booked ’em to do their thing at Disney World in FL.
Willis says the Village People and Disney had a good relationship up until this year — saying the band had performed there annually for at least a decade — but in recent years … there’d been a fracture in the band with old members, who were trying to keep the yearly gig going.
Long story short … Willis says Victor and Jacques Morali — another OG member — were allowed to perform at Disney after winning the rights to their music from the other guys … and when they did performances in 2018, everything went swimmingly at first …but quickly went south.
Per Willis … over the course of the 2-day job, she says she and the Village People were treated terribly by Disney — claiming she wanted to personally help with front-of-house sound duties for a better show but was physically blocked by Disney workers and even ushered away.
What’s more … Willis claims that she and Victor were physically attacked by overzealous fans in the park — whom she says were planted by the spurned ex-band members. Willis says Disney provided no extra security for them, despite her husband’s contract requiring it.
There’s even more … Willis claims the worst part is Disney ended up giving them the runaround on payment … with checks initially made out to the wrong people/groups.
Willis says when she and her husband attempted to have these things resolved, Disney allegedly gave them the cold shoulder — and afterward, she claims Disney has failed to hire them back for any other Disney gigs … which she believes is being done on purpose.
Disney recently filed a motion to dismiss this suit, saying it had the right not to hire the Village People if it didn’t want to — but the court just recently rejected that … and now, the case will move forward.
Now, it looks like Village People are getting into formation … and BTW, they’re asking for more than $20 mil in damages. We’ve reached out to Disney for comment … so far, no word back.