Victor Willis, the original lead singer and composer of most of the hits of the Village People, has sent a cease and desist order to the E! Network over tonight’s showing of Macy’s Presents Fashions Front Row.
The program originally aired on Wednesday and Willis had given permission to the producers for the current version of the group to sing Macho Man as part of the proceedings; however, when the program aired, they had actually used another Village People hit, YMCA.
Willis quickly took to Twitter after the show aired to express his disapproval.
I did not approve a live performance of YMCA by the current group on E! @Macys U will hear from my lawyers real soon. pic.twitter.com/XLUMtBT606
— Victor Willis (@victorwillis) September 24, 2015
..and he followed through on his threat. His lawyers sent a cease and desist to the E! Network demanding that the show not be repeated tonight (Thursday).
The text of the order read, in part:
It is has come my attention that your network has aired a live performance of the iconic composition Y.M.C.A. We are one of the owners of the copyright. This airing occurred on September 23, 2015. We did not grant you live performance use rights of the song. We believe we can show a copyright violation has occurred.
We are informed and believe that on September 24, 2015, you intend a second airing of the live performance of Y.M.C.A. It is hereby demanded that you cease and desist any further use of the song.
It appears as if E! has complied with the order as the show is not shown on their schedule for tonight.
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