Victor Willis, leader of the Village People, dies at the age of 74

Victor Willis, lead singer of the band Village People, has died at the age of 74. The group shared the news in a statement: “Victor passed away on Monday, June 30, 2026 due to a short but aggressive illness,” they said. “Privacy is required.”

Willis, the writer of what were widely accepted as gay YMCA anthems and a macho man — who also performed in costumes of hyper-masculine stereotypes — refuted the idea that the YMCA was a gay anthem and threatened to sue “every news organization” that made the claim.

“As I’ve said many times in the past, this is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, some (but not all) of the Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was strictly about gay life,” he said in 2024.

After thriving in the disco era, Willis left the band in 1980 and spent decades mired in drug abuse and legal troubles.

Willis has had a skittish approach to Donald Trump’s use of the YMCA in his campaigns and parades. After approving its use in Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, Willis backed away from his support when the Black Lives Matter movement rose to prominence, but changed his tune again.

He has repeatedly said he opposes Trump ideologically — and in 2024 supported Kamala Harris — but acknowledged that president’s use of the track “greatly benefited the song.” In 2025, the Village People performed at the Turning Point USA concert to celebrate the president’s second inauguration, as well as the march that preceded the inauguration.

On Wednesday, Trump posted a tribute to Willis on Truth Social, writing: “He was a great, happy man and I love that I used his rally song, the YMCA, at my rallies. We will think of Victor every time the YMCA is played, as it is today, and all throughout the 4th of July Christmas week.”

Willis was born on July 1, 1951 in Texas. He grew up singing in the Baptist church run by his father. He sang in his high school band, The Ballads, which backed the Temptations. After leaving school he became a Broadway performer, and met his future wife, Phylicia Rashad (then Phylicia Ayers Allen, who later starred in The Cosby Show), while starring in the musical The Wiz. The couple was married from 1978 to the early 1980s.

Willis was discovered on Broadway by French music producer and composer Jacques Morali and his business partner Henri Bellolo, who invited him to sing on an album they were making aimed at the gay dance crowd in the United States.

Murali had the idea of ​​creating a disco group based on typical American stereotypes: “We have an idea,” he recounted in Mojo magazine in 1998, “to form a very special group, very American and very happy.” Willis also wrote songs for another Murali group, the Philadelphia disco band, the Ritchie Family.

After this “happy” recording, 1977’s Village People became a hit, and Welles and Morali recruited the rest of the group’s characters—largely actors, models and dancers—from an advertisement that stated: “Macho types wanted. Must have moustache.” They firmly established the band’s multi-costume look, including skin dad, construction worker and cowboy. Willis plays a naval officer or policeman.

With the lineup solidified, the band released the album Macho Man, which spawned a hit single of the same name—and the 1978 hit YMCA, which reached No. 1 in 17 countries.

Neil Tennant, frontman of the Pet Shop Boys, said of the song: “I liked the fact that she was openly gay – when everyone else denied that fact.” “It had become so sexless. There was almost a conspiracy to not realize it was about men having sex in YMCA bathrooms. It was too good a record to admit to that. I thought it was outrageous!” The Pet Shop Boys would go on to cover the Village People’s 1979 hit Go West.

That year, the Village People had another hit with In the Navy. The US Navy allowed the band to use their craft to record the video in exchange for using the song in a recruiting campaign – until the Navy realized what they could infer (“they’re signing up new sailors fast”) and changed their minds.

Willis left the band in 1980 while they were preparing a feature film called Can’t Stop the Music, which enjoyed critical and commercial success. Morali and Bellolo thought it was time for him to go it alone, although a solo album recorded in 1979 would remain unreleased until 2015.

Willis returned to the group for the 1982 album Fox on the Box, but left again the following year. Willis then withdrew from public life and faced long-term drug abuse problems.

In 1993, he was accused of raping and beating a woman, and was later acquitted. In 2005, he was arrested in California and found in possession of cocaine and a gun. He pleaded no contest but failed to stand trial and fled — even appearing on the TV show America’s Most Wanted.

In 2006, he was arrested and found in possession of cocaine again, and was placed on probation and sentenced to rehab after a series of drug and gun offenses and serial probation violations. The judge showed him leniency, citing his “still untapped potential,” and sent him to the Betty Ford Rehabilitation Clinic in California. After completing rehab, he released a statement to fans, saying he was finally free from drug abuse and was “looking forward to living the second part of my life drug-free.”

In 2007, he married attorney and entertainment executive Karen Huff, who helped him file a copyright case against the companies that owned Village People’s music. In 2015, a federal jury ruled that he was entitled to 50% ownership of 13 of their songs, including the YMCA.

In 2017, Willis rejoined the Village People ahead of the release of their 2018 album A Village People Christmas.

In 2020, the YMCA was preserved in the US Library of Congress’s National Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”