"Y.M.C.A." is a song by the American disco group Village People. It was released in 1978 as the only single from their third studio album Cruisin' (1978). The song reached number 2 on the US charts in early 1979 and reached number 1 in the UK around the same time, becoming the group's biggest hit. It is one of fewer than forty singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide. A medley with "Hot Cop" reached number 2 on Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart.

The song remains popular and is played at many sporting events in the U.S. and Europe, with crowds using the dance in which the arms are used to spell out the four letters of the song's title as an opportunity to stretch. Moreover, the song also remains particularly popular due to its status as a disco classic. "Y.M.C.A." appeared as Space Shuttle Wakeup call on mission STS-106, on day 11.

In 2009, "Y.M.C.A." was entered into the Guinness World Book of Records when over 44,000 people danced to the song with Village People singing live at the 2008 Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. "Y.M.C.A." is number 7 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest Dance Songs of the 20th Century.

The Village People was an American disco group created by Jacques Morali and Henry Belolo in 1977. According to Marjorie Burgess, it all began when Morali went to a New York gay bar one night and noticed dancer Felipe Rose dressed as a Native American. Morali then spotted Rose again one week later dressed in Indian garb. Rose happened to be dancing near one man dressed as a cowboy and another wearing a construction hat. "And after that I say to myself," Morali told Rolling Stone’s Emerson, "‘You know, this is fantastic’—to see the cowboy, the Indian, the construction worker with other men around. And also, I think in myself that the gay people have no group, nobody to personalize the gay people, you know? And I say to Felipe, ‘One of these days I’m going to employ you.’" Morali began to produce disco records with masculine stereotypes in mind that same week.Victor Willis, lead singer and lyricist, recalls that while in the studio, Morali asked him, "What exactly is the YMCA?" After Willis explained it to him, he saw the expression on Morali's face and said, "Don't tell me Jacques, you want to write a song about it?" and they quickly wrote the track for the album Cruisin'.

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