The news that the famously camp Village People are to perform at Donald Trump's inauguration ball on Monday is as unlikely as hearing that the President-elect of the Dad-Dancing Society has won Strictly.

The band, which has a huge gay following, is hardly what you would expect from the anti-woke new incumbent of the White House.

And yet, The Donald has let it be known that their 1978 hit YMCA is his favourite single. And after he adopted it for his Make America Great Again campaign during the election in November it topped the U.S. charts.

So who are the Village People? Here, DAVID LEAFE reveals ten extraordinary facts about the band that has hit the big time again nearly 50 years after its first incarnation...

1. They were originally the 'Village Person'

The Village People were created by French composer and producer Jacques Morali, a gay man who had enjoyed several hits in Europe before moving to New York in 1977 to break into the American market.

Approached by struggling singer/actor Victor Willis, he hired him to sing the four tracks on an album called Village People, a nod to the gay community in New York's Greenwich Village.

To maintain the pretence that Village People were an actual band, Morali added backing tracks from session singers. Caught out when success saw the 'group' invited to perform live in clubs around the Big Apple, he raced to find new members.

Since then, some 26 performers have donned the hard hats, leather jackets and other trademark outfits in over a dozen iterations of the band.