Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People and co-wrote 'Y.M.C.A.,' dies at 74 [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARK KENNEDY
Updated 11:51 AM CDT, July 1, 2026
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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.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/victor-willis-dies-0409f2baba4afa338f93ba98273e9539