Victor Willis, the longtime lead singer and frontman of costumed disco group the Village People and cowriter of such indelible dance anthems as “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man,” has died at 74. Willis, who performed as both a police officer and naval officer in the group whose members were known for their colorful stage attire and fit physiques, died on Tuesday (June 30) following a brief illness, according to a post on the group’s Facebook page.
“We are profoundly sad to announce the death of VICTOR WILLIS, lead singer of Village People. Victor passed on Tuesday June 30, 2026 of a short but aggressive illness. Privacy is requested,” read the post; Willis’ wife, Karen-Huff Willis, posted a similar message on her husband’s FB page. At press time, no additional information was available about the singer’s cause of death.
Born on July 1, 1951, in Dallas, Texas, Willis grew up in San Francisco’s notoriously funky Haight-Ashbury district, singing gospel in his Baptist minister father’s church as a young man before pivoting to soul music with his high school band. He used his acting and dance training at Antioch College to transition to musicals after a move to New York, where he joined the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in the original Broadway production of The Wiz in 1976.
His life changed in 1977 when French music producer Jacques Morali and his Can’t Stop Productions partner Henri Belolo put out a call for background singers to lend a hand on an album by their group the Ritchie Family. Arranger/conductor Horace Ott suggested Willis, who was then tapped by the Can’t Stop team to front a new kind of group they were putting together.
“I had a dream that you sang lead vocals on an album I produced, and it went very, very big,” Morali told Willis at the time, according to the group’s official bio. “I have four tracks. I can’t pay you much right now but if you agree, I’ll make you a star.” Willis agreed and those initial songs — “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me),” “In Hollywood (Everyone’s a Star),” “Fire Island” and “Village People” — were recorded by Willis with a group of background singers and bundled on the act’s 1977 self-titled debut album, which hit Nov. 54 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Taking inspiration for the name from Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, the producers quickly pulled together a backing band to make an appearance with Willis on American Bandstand. After the original lineup — pretend cop Willis, Felipe Rose (American Indian), Alex Briley (soldier), Lee Mouton (biker), Mark Mussler (construction worker), David Forrest (cowboy) and brief, early non-costumed member Peter Whitehead — made a splash on the show, the producers posted a recruitment ad that read “macho types wanted: must dance and have a mustache.”
They also leaned into what became the group’s signature gimmick: job-related costumes for each man, with the original lineup shuffled to include Glenn Hughes (leather daddy), David Hodo (construction worker) and Randy Jones (cowboy).
Formed at the peak of the disco revolution, the gay-coded group quickly became dance floor icons thanks to such booming anthems as the Willis cowritten “Macho Man” from their 1978 album of the same name, which peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Leaning further into the are-they-or-aren’t-they nature of the group, the title of the band’s third album, 1978’s Cruisin’, was either an homage to hopping in the car for a drive or a not-at-all-subtle reference to the gay slang term for searching around for casual sex.
That album spawned yet another huge hit with “Y.M.C.A.,” another Willis cowrite that hit No. 2 on the Hot 100 in early 1979 before going on to be one of the group’s most successful and beloved singles. The Grammy Hall of Fame track with its signature hand jive motions has since become a staple at parties and sporting events, as well as being one of President Donald Trump’s favorite songs, one he frequently gyrates to during public appearances.
Willis, who was straight, steadfastly denied that he wrote “Y.M.C.A.” to be a “gay anthem,” despite the double-entendre lyrics that appeared to suggest otherwise. “Young man, there’s a place you can go, I said/ Young man, when you’re short on your dough/ You can stay there and I’m sure you will find/ Many ways to have a good time,” he sings on the tune.
In 2024, Willis who was married to The Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashad and later to entertainment exec Karen Huff, explained his decision to not stop Trump from playing “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies and official events during his 2024 presidential campaign, despite making that request in 2020 during the president’s failed second White House bid.
Even after dozens of other major acts asked Trump to cease playing their songs at his events, Willis said at the time that the former reality star seemed to “genuinely like” the song and was “having a lot of fun with it.”
Willis left the group in 1979 amid the production for their disastrous movie musical Can’t Stop the Music, and was replaced by the band’s former tour backup singer, Ray Simpson. A 1979 live album, Live and Sleazy, featured lead vocals from Willis as well as other band members in a mix of concert and studio tracks including “Fire Island” (an homage to the Long Island, N.Y.-adjacent island long known as a gay mecca), “Macho Man,” “In the Navy” and, of course, “Y.M.C.A.”
With disco’s popularity at a nadir amid the rise of new wave, the group’s 1981 album, Renaissance, which had them adopting the makeup and new romantic look of the day, was a flop. Willis briefly came back into the fold for 1981’s equally unimpressive eighth album, Fox on the Box, which was later released in the U.S. in 1983 as In the Street. By 1983, Willis took leave again as the band underwent another in a rolling series of lineup changes and he began a decades long battle over copyright issues.
After leaving the group, Willis would not perform Village People songs and did not record new music, though a 1979 solo album, Solo Man, was finally released in August 2015. Willis, who entered the Betty Ford Clinic in 2007 following years of substance abuse, rejoined the group yet again in 2017 after a 2015 out-of-court settlement that gave him 50% ownership of some of the group’s biggest hits. He appeared on the 2018 Christmas album, A Village People Christmas (later rereleased as Magical Christmas) and performed with them at several events tied to Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025.
Check out some of the Village People’s greatest hits below.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
