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The Village People Suing Disney for Allegedly Stiffing, Blackballing 'Em Lawsuit Allowed to Chug On

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.

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