Victor Willis, a founding member and the lead singer of the Village People and co-writer of the group’s biggest hits, died on Tuesday, the band announced. He was 74.
Willis co-wrote “YMCA,” “In the Navy” and “Macho Man,” Variety reported.
The Village People announced Willis’ death on the group’s official Facebook page.
“We are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis,” lead singer of Village People,“ the group wrote. ”Victor passed on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 of a short but aggressive illness. Privacy is requested."
The Texas-born musician fronted the band when it became an international sensation during the late 1970s. Group members dressed as “macho” characters, including firemen, construction workers and police officers, the BBC reported.
Willis dressed as a policeman and naval officer while performing.
The anthem-like “YMCA” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on Feb. 3, 1979, and spent 26 weeks on the charts. “In the Navy” topped out at No. 3 on the Billboard charts on May 19, 1979, and was on the Hot 100 for 18 weeks.
The group’s first hit, “Macho Man,” reached No. 25 on the charts during the summer of 1978 and stayed in the top 100 for 15 weeks.
In March 2020, the Library of Congress described “YMCA” as “an American phenomenon” and added the song to the National Recording Registry, Variety reported. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame the following year.
“YMCA” would also be adopted as a gay anthem, with many believing that it celebrated the reputation of the YMCA’s hostels as a popular hook-up spot in the 1970s, Rolling Stone reported.
Willis later distanced himself from the claim, according to the magazine. In 2024, he said that fans needed to “get their minds out of the gutter” and that the “false assumptions were damaging to the song.”
Willis left the band in 1980 and spent years fighting a legal battle over copyright to the songs he’d written, the BBC reported.
In May 2012, he won a landmark ruling in the first case heard regarding the Copyright Act of 1976, Variety reported. The law allows recording artists and writers to reclaim their work.
Three years later, a federal jury ruled that Willis was entitled to 50% ownership of 13 of the group’s songs in the U.S., including “YMCA,” the BBC reported.
In 2017, Willis reached an out-of-court settlement and rejoined the group. He performed “YMCA” at President Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration rally in January 2025, according to the BBC.
Willis, the son of a Baptist preacher, grew up in San Francisco and sang in his father’s church, Variety reported. He moved to New York and joined the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in several musicals and plays that included the original Broadway production of “The Wiz” in 1976.
He met French disco producer Jacques Morali in 1977, who proposed that Willis would front his new album. Willis agreed, and the first Village People album was released later that year, Variety reported.
After leaving the group, Willis battled substance abuse and entered the Betty Ford Clinic in 2007. according to the entertainment news site.
“I got very depressed over the years and decided to just drop off the map. So I got into drugs,” Willis told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a 2015 interview.