Victor Willis, Village Person and Trump Ally, Is Dead at 74

Victor Willis, a founding member of the iconic disco group Village People, is dead at 74. His wife, Karen Huff-Willis, announced his death via his Facebook page, saying he died of “a short, but aggressive illness.” Willis died June 30, one day before his 75th birthday.

Willis founded Village People alongside French disco producer Jacques Morali in 1977. Willis was the lead singer, and when all the performers took on stereotypically masculine personas, he became known for playing the cop. Willis co-wrote the band’s hits, including iconic tracks like “Macho Man,” “Y.M.C.A.,” “In the Navy,” and “Go West.” The band was wildly successful throughout the late 1970s; their 1978 album, Cruisin’, reached No. 3 on the “Billboard 200,” and its accompanying single, “Y.M.C.A.,” hit No. 2 on the “Hot 100.” Willis left the group in 1979. Amid Willis’s departure and the “disco sucks” movement, Village People’s popularity fell, and their 1981 album, Renaissance, only made it to No. 138. During this time, from 1978 to 1982, Willis was married to Phylicia Rashad — contrary to the group’s gay image.

Willis was arrested twice in 2006, first for drug-related charges and then for threatening his girlfriend with a knife. He went to rehab but missed the 2008 ceremony where Village People received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2012, he won the landmark first case centered on the Copyright Act of 1976 and reclaimed Village People’s master recordings. In 2017, he rejoined the band. 

Late in life, he became best known for denying that Village People was a gay act and supporting President Donald Trump’s use of the song “Y.M.C.A.” at his rallies. “Come January 2025,” Willis wrote on Facebook at one point, “my wife will start suing each and every news organisation that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit [sic] activity for which it does not.” He added that “YMCA is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.” Morali was not alive to disagree with Willis — he died of AIDS-related illness in 1991. Following Willis’s death, Trump posted a tribute to Willis on Truth Social. “We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played,” he wrote, “like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week.”