Village People lead singer Victor Willis, whose onstage costumes and catchy songs — including “YMCA,” “In the Navy” and “Macho Man” — made the group a household name far beyond the disco era, died on Tuesday, the band said in a social media post this week. He was 74.
Willis died after a “short, but aggressive” illness, his wife wrote in a separate statement posted on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.
“The family request privacy at this time of great loss,” the statement added.
Willis was born in Texas in 1951 and grew up singing gospel music in the church where his father was a Baptist minister.
In 1977, he teamed with late producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to create the Village People, embodying the group’s “Cop/Admiral” character. Willis left and returned to the group several times in the years that followed but returned for good in 2017.
When the group’s hit song “Y.M.C.A.” was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in March 2020, Willis said in a statement, “I had no idea when we wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.’ that it would become one of the most iconic songs in the world, and fixture at almost every wedding, birthday party, bar mitzvah and sporting event.”
“I am glad that the music of Village People has made the world smile for over 40 years with our music,” he continued. “On behalf of my partners Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, we thank you and are honored to be in such elite company.”
“Y.M.C.A.” was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021.
President Donald Trump, who frequently plays “Y.M.C.A.” at his campaign rallies and events, mourned Willis’ death in a social media post Wednesday. He took credit for reviving the song, which was first released in 1978 as the lead single on the Village People’s Cruisin’ album.
The group had initially asked Trump to stop using their songs “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man” at his rallies, but later supported the use of them and even performed at Trump’s victory rally on the eve of his second inauguration in January 2025.
“[Willis] was a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups song, YMCA, at my Rallies,” Trump wrote in part on Wednesday. “It became a ‘monster’ hit, again, 30 years after its original launch.”
Willis was previously married to actress Phylicia Rashad from 1978 to 1982. He remarried in 2007 and is survived by his wife Karen Huff-Willis, an entertainment executive and attorney.
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