Pro-Trump Singer Joy Villa Talks 'Overwhelming Support,' Hitting Top 10 Thanks to Grammys Dress2/17/2017 by Chris Willman
She says her three-year-old 'I Make the Static' EP now hitting the Billboard 200 is proof "people like to support those who support their beliefs."
The relatively unknown singer Joy Villa is getting something out of being associated with President Donald Trump that inauguration performer Jackie Evancho didn’t -- a top 10 album in the Billboard 200.
The woman who was the talk of the Grammy Awards red carpet for wearing a gown emblazoned with the words “Trump” and “Make America Great Again” sold 15,000 copies of a three-year-old EP, I Make the Static, over two days immediately following her startling appearance in the fashion parade. Even in the absence of Trump tweeting out any appreciation for the shout-out, right-leaning outlets like Fox & Friends and Breitbart helped steer conservatives to the project, marking the only time in memory -- and maybe in history -- in which a theretofore anonymous artist has had a top 10 debut solely as the result of making a political statement.
“This is beyond my wildest dreams right now,” Villa tells Billboard. “The spooky thing is that two weeks before the Grammys, I wrote down my goals and one of them was: ‘To be on the top of the Billboard charts with a song I wrote and performed.’ ... It's completely unheard of. I'm an indie, self-published performer who's mostly toured overseas and is completely self-funded, with a three-year-old album charting. I’ve always wanted to achieve this success; I just didn't expect it so sudden and so soon.”
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7694249/donald-trump-joy-villa-grammys-dress-top-10-interview