{"id":905330,"date":"2026-07-01T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/905330\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:49:14","slug":"victor-willis-dead-village-people-singer-and-ymca-co-writer-was-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/905330\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Willis Dead: Village People Singer and ‘YMCA’ Co-Writer Was 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tVictor Willis<\/a>, the founding lead singer of Village People<\/a> and co-writer of \u201cYMCA<\/a>,\u201d \u201cMacho Man\u201d and \u201cIn the Navy,\u201d died on Tuesday. He was 74.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis, lead singer of Village People. Victor passed on Monday June 30, 2026 of a short but aggressive illness. Privacy is requested,\u201d it was posted on the Village People official Facebook page. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe son of a Baptist preacher, Willis grew up in San Francisco, where he developed his voice singing in his father\u2019s church. With training in acting and dance, he relocated to New York and joined the Negro Ensemble Company, appearing in numerous musicals and plays, including the original Broadway production of \u201cThe Wiz\u201d in 1976.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis career changed course after he was introduced to French disco producer Jacques Morali, who approached him with an audacious pitch: that Willis would front his new album and make it a massive hit. Willis agreed, and the debut Village People album was released in July 1977. After an appearance on \u201cAmerican Bandstand\u201d prompted demand for a live act, Willis and Morali assembled a full group of performers around him \u2013 the archetypal costumed characters who would become one of the most recognizable ensembles in pop history.<\/p>\n

\n\tWillis went on to co-write all of the group\u2019s biggest singles. \u201cYMCA,\u201d released in 1978, became their signature hit, followed by \u201cIn the Navy\u201d and \u201cGo West.\u201d Village People\u2019s theatrical blend of disco rhythms and outsized masculine archetypes \u2013 cop, cowboy, construction worker \u2013 propelled them to mainstream ubiquity.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn March 2020, the Library of Congress described \u201cYMCA\u201d as \u201can American phenomenon\u201d and added the song to the National Recording Registry. The following year, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n

\n\tWillis departed Village People in 1980 as the group prepared for the musical film \u201cCan\u2019t Stop the Music,\u201d though he contributed lyrics to two of its songs. He left again in 1983 after a brief return. In the years that followed, he struggled with substance abuse before entering the Betty Ford Clinic in 2007.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn May 2012, Willis won a landmark ruling in the first case heard regarding the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows recording artists and writers to reclaim their work. In 2017, Willis reached an out-of-court settlement with Henri Belolo, Morali\u2019s business partner, and returned as the group\u2019s lead singer, ushering in a new chapter that included the release of \u201cA Village People Christmas\u201d in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Willis, the founding lead singer of Village People and co-writer of \u201cYMCA,\u201d \u201cMacho Man\u201d and \u201cIn the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":905331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,67,132,68,366416,353919,23951],"class_list":["post-905330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-victor-willis","tag-village-people","tag-ymca"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116844571333550606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}