Village People lead singer Victor Willis dead at 74

Victor Willis, a co-founder and lead singer of the Village People, died Tuesday after what the band’s official Facebook page said was “a short but aggressive illness.” He was 74 years old.

Willis was born in Dallas in 1951 but grew up in San Francisco. The son of a Baptist minister, he sharpened his musical talents by singing gospel before later turning to jazz and soul. In 1977, he was hired to sing backup for a new group conceived by producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo: the Village People, a costumed disco ensemble built around exaggerated masculine archetypes found in New York’s gay culture at the time. Their first album, inspired by gay men in Greenwich Village, was initially meant to feature Willis on backup vocals. Impressed by his voice, Morali and Belolo persuaded Willis to take a starring role in the group. Released later that year, Village People, which included hits like “In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)” and “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me),” capitalized on the growing popularity of Eurodisco in the U.S. The group soon became a touring band centered on Willis. 

Willis played a central role in the band’s second, third, and fourth albums: Macho Man, Cruisin’, and Go West. He co-wrote and sang “Y.M.C.A.,” “In the Navy,” and “Go West,” performing the songs in the group’s signature police officer and sailor uniforms. Although the Village People drew heavily on gay iconography, its biggest commercial success came with mainstream audiences. They performed exaggerated, homoerotic masculinity while largely avoiding explicit mention of any member’s personal life, which allowed the music to, over time, become associated with the queer community. 

In 1980, amid preparations for a feature film about the group, Willis left. Can’t Stop the Music was a commercial and critical failure, and the Village People went hitless afterward. After his departure, Willis became involved with stage productions but openly struggled with drug addiction, eventually entering rehab. He recorded one solo album, Solo Man, in 1979, but it remained unreleased until 2015. Two years later, Willis returned as the Village People’s lead singer, and the group began touring and recording again. 

After Donald Trump permanently added “Y.M.C.A.” to his MAGA rally soundtrack in 2020, Willis repeatedly changed his position on whether or not the president ought to use his song. During the summer of 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests were happening, he objected to Trump’s use of the song, but later that year said Trump’s campaign had permission to use the song. After a Saturday Night Live sketch parodied the song’s association with Trump, Willis again objected to its use. But in late 2024, the singer took to Facebook to thank Trump for using his song, arguing that it had never been intended as a gay anthem. Despite criticism from some of his former bandmates, Willis and the re-formed Village People performed “Y.M.C.A.” at Turning Point USA’s inauguration ball for the president, and later at a Trump rally. 

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