NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People, co-wrote the disco group’s classic hits 鈥淵.M.C.A.,鈥� 鈥矼acho Man鈥� and 鈥淚n the Navy,鈥� and delighted crowds while dressed as the band’s helmeted and mustachioed police officer, has died. He was 74.
鈥淲e are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis, lead singer of Village People,” . The cause was identified as 鈥渁 short but aggressive illness.鈥�
Willis was a musician-actor who, among other things, had appeared on Broadway in 鈥淭he Wiz鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 self-titled debut album was released in 1977.
In 1978, the group released two albums, 鈥淢acho Man鈥� and 鈥淐ruisin鈥欌�� 鈥� which featured the international hit 鈥淵.M.C.A.,鈥� a song that peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard chart. A year later, Village People released the album 鈥淕o West,鈥� which included 鈥淚n the Navy,鈥� a song that peaked at No. 3 on the chart. 鈥淢acho Man鈥� peaked at No. 25 in 1978.
In 2020, Congress described 鈥淵.M.C.A.鈥� 鈥� with its infectious chorus of 鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.鈥� and 鈥� as 鈥渁n American phenomenon鈥� 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 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.
鈥淲e will think of Victor every time 鈥榊.M.C.A.鈥� is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week,鈥� President Donald Trump wrote on social media Wednesday. 鈥淢y condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed.鈥�
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 , 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鈥檚 songs, including 鈥淵.M.C.A.鈥�
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. 鈥淟ife is fine. I went through whatever I went through, but everything is going great now,鈥� he said.
In May, Willis and the Village People 鈥� he was the only original member 鈥� sang 鈥淗appy Birthday鈥� and 鈥淵.M.C.A.鈥� for Secretary of State Marco Rubio during an event in India.
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