Victor Willis, the lead singer of the Village Folks, the group whose onstage costumes and catchy songs together with “YMCA,” “Within the Navy” and “Macho Man,” made them a family identify far past the disco period, died on Tuesday, the band mentioned in a social media publish this week. He was 74.
Willis died after a “quick, however aggressive” sickness, his spouse wrote in a separate assertion posted on his official Fb web page on Wednesday.
“The household request privateness at the moment of nice loss,” the assertion added.
Willis was born in Texas in 1951 and grew up singing gospel music within the church the place his father was a Baptist minister.
Victor Willis of the Village Folks performs through the Pageant d’ete de Quebec on Thursday, July 11, 2019, in Quebec Metropolis, Canada.
Amy Harris/Invision/AP
In 1977, he teamed up with the late producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to create and kind the Village Folks, embodying the group’s “Cop/Admiral” character. Willis left and returned to the group a number of occasions within the years that adopted however returned for good in 2017.
When the group’s hit tune “Y.M.C.A.” was named to the Nationwide Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in March 2020, Willis mentioned in an announcement, “I had no concept once we wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.’ that it might turn out to be probably the most iconic songs on this planet, and fixture at nearly each wedding ceremony, birthday celebration, bar mitzvah and sporting occasion.”
“I’m glad that the music of Village Folks has made the world smile for over 40 years with our music,” he continued. “On behalf of my companions Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, we thanks and are honored to be in such elite firm.”
“Y.M.C.A.” was additionally inducted into the Grammy Corridor of Fame in 2021.
President Donald Trump, who often performs “Y.M.C.A.” at his numerous marketing campaign rallies and occasions, mourned Willis’ loss of life in a social media publish Wednesday and took credit score for reviving the tune, which was first launched in 1978 because the lead single on the Village Folks’s “Cruisin'” album.
The group had initially requested Trump to cease utilizing their songs, together with “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man,” at his rallies however later supported the use of them and even carried out at Trump’s victory rally on the eve of his second inauguration in January 2025.
“[Willis] was an amazing and pleased man who cherished that I used his teams tune, YMCA, at my Rallies,” Trump wrote partially on Wednesday. “It grew to become a ‘monster’ hit, once more, 30 years after its authentic launch.”
Willis was beforehand married to actress Phylicia Rashad from 1978 to 1982. He remarried in 2007 and is survived by his spouse Karen Huff-Willis, an leisure govt and legal professional.
