Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People and co-wrote 'Y.M.C.A.,'
dies at 74
[July 02, 2026]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People,
co-wrote the disco group's classic hits “Y.M.C.A.,” ″Macho Man” and “In
the Navy,” and delighted crowds while dressed as the band's helmeted and
mustachioed police officer, has died. He was 74.
“We are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis, lead
singer of Village People," the group posted on its official Facebook
page. The cause was identified as “a short but aggressive illness.”
Willis was a musician-actor who, among other things, had appeared on
Broadway in “The Wiz” when he decided to cash in on the disco craze in
1977 by joining a group made up of beefy, macho-looking guys dressed as
a biker, a construction worker, a cop, a cowboy and a Native American
chief.
With producer Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, Morali’s business
partner, Willis founded the six-member Village People. The idea came to
them while partying at an after-hours gay nightclub in the West Village
of Manhattan. The group’s self-titled debut album was released in 1977.
In 1978, the group released two albums, “Macho Man” and “Cruisin’” —
which featured the international hit “Y.M.C.A.,” a song that peaked at
No. 2 on the Billboard chart. A year later, Village People released the
album “Go West,” which included “In the Navy,” a song that peaked at No.
3 on the chart. “Macho Man” peaked at No. 25 in 1978.
In 2020, Congress described “Y.M.C.A.” — with its infectious chorus of
“It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.” and an accompanying dance spelling
out the letters — as “an American phenomenon” and added the song to the
National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was inducted into the Grammy
Hall of Fame.
Willis also starred in the 1980 movie “Can’t Stop the Music,” a widely
ridiculed comedy starring the Village People and Steve Guttenberg and
directed by Nancy Walker. Critic Rex Reed called it "one of the silliest
movies ever made."
Village People music is the backbone of pool parties, high school
dances, weddings, proms, bar mitzvahs, games and whenever an uplifting
mood is needed. The songs also played at gay marches and the White
House.
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Victor Willis, a member of the disco group The Village People,
appears during a Halloween party in Los Angeles on Oct. 31, 1979.
(AP Photo/George Brich, File)
 “We will think of Victor every time
‘Y.M.C.A.’ is played, like today, and all throughout this July
Fourth Birthday week,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media
Wednesday. “My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor
Willis will be sorely missed.”
While musicians like Neil Young, John Fogerty, Phil Collins, Panic!
At The Disco and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and Prince
sent cease-and-desist letters to stop Trump from using their music,
Willis said he didn't feel he was endorsing Trump when the song
played.
Willis was born in Texas and grew up in the Haight-Ashbury
neighborhood of San Francisco. When he moved to New York, he went to
a YMCA on West 63rd Street in Manhattan, which inspired the hit
song.
The ownership of Village People's songs came into doubt decades
after the hits, and in 2015, a federal jury ruled that Willis was
entitled to 50% copyright ownership in the United States of 13 of
the group’s songs, including “Y.M.C.A.”
After a series of arrests on drug-related charges that resulted in a
rehab stint, Willis told The Associated Press in 2012 that his life
had turned around. “Life is fine. I went through whatever I went
through, but everything is going great now,” he said.
In May, Willis and the Village People — he was the only original
member — sang “Happy Birthday” and “Y.M.C.A.” for Secretary of State
Marco Rubio during an event in India.
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