Joy Villa on Grammy Dress Reaction: I'm Now #1 Artist, Best-Selling Album on iTunes
Singer Joy Villa made headlines at the Grammy Awards for her “Make America Great Again”-themed dress. She appeared on the FOX Business Network Tuesday to discuss her decision to wear the dress, the reactions to it and the impact it’s had on her album sales.
“I voted for Trump and a lot of my friends did as well. And we felt like we had to be closeted, we had to be quiet about it or we would face a backlash and bullying and I just got tired of the narrative of hate. You know, you’re a racist, you’re a bigot, you’re this, you’re that – people losing jobs, all because they voted for our now elected President,” Villa told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Villa explained that the dress was her way of countering all that negativity and hate.
“For me, it’s more of a platform for love and acceptance.”
According to Villa, she was expecting some negative reaction to the dress, but was surprised by the huge amount of positive feedback she has received.
“I knew there would be backlash, but the surprising thing is I received so much more of an outpouring of love and support than I ever thought I would receive. In fact, my email is flooded, my publicist’s email is flooded with ‘I support you,’ ‘I appreciate that,’ or even ‘I don’t agree with Trump but I agree with you being bold and making a statement, thanks for being yourself.’”
Villa’s sales have benefited greatly from the buzz surrounding the dress, she says, with her EP “I Make the Static” taking the top spot on the US iTunes single sales chart.
“I went from 1,000 and something on the charts to number one. I am now currently a number one artist, [with a] best-selling album on iTunes and Amazon Music. The sales have come in like gangbusters, that support means so much to me.”
Villa had hoped the dress would garner some attention to her music career, but was surprised by the impact it had.
“I was not expecting that. Of course I said, ‘boy it would be great if more people knew who I was as an artist’ and, you know, liked my music and maybe bought a few albums, but that overwhelming support pushing me through the charts up to [the] number one place, it just shows what supportive unity can really do.”