Victor Willis, singer and historical face of the Village People, died on June 30, 2026 after a short but aggressive illness. The announcement was made by the band itself through their social channels: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Victor Willis, lead singer of the Village People. Victor passed away on Tuesday 30 June 2026 following a short but aggressive illness. Respect for his privacy is requested”.
Born in Dallas on July 1, 1951, Willis grew up in San Francisco, where he took his first steps in music singing gospel at his preacher father's Baptist church. The turning point came in 1977, when he met the producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo. After participating as a backing vocalist on a Ritchie Family album, he was involved in the new project conceived by the two producers: a group built around characters inspired by the imagery of American pop culture, destined to become the Village People.
It was Willis himself who performed the band's first songs, “San Francisco (You've Got Me)”, “In Hollywood (Everyone's A Star)”, “Fire Island” and “Village People”, released on their 1977 debut album. The album quickly conquered the dance charts and kicked off the group's international success.
Often on stage as the helmeted policeman, symbol of his artistic identity, main voice of the band until 1980, Willis also signed as co-author some of the most famous songs in the Village People's repertoire, including “Macho Man”, “YMCA”, “In The Navy”, “Go West” and “Five O'Clock In The Morning”, songs which have become authentic classics of pop music and disco music.
In addition to their successes, the Village People became unmistakable for their stage costumes inspired by symbolic figures of the male imagination – from the policeman to the cowboy, through the soldier and the worker – reinterpreted in an ironic and deliberately allusive key.
Willis left the band in the early 1980s and faced a long legal battle to get the royalties on the songs he helped write. After leaving the band, the singer went through a long period marked by drug addiction and problems with the law. He managed to detoxify himself in 2007 and, ten years later, in 2017, he returned to the role of frontman of the Village People, resuming live activity with the group on international tours.
In recent years the Village People have returned to the center of attention also for the use of some of their songs during Donald Trump's presidential campaigns. The group also performed at the rally preceding the inauguration of the president in January 2025, performing their hit “YMCA.” “Victor Willis was a wonderful, cheerful man who really appreciated the fact that I used his group's song, 'YMCA,' at my rallies,” Trump commented.
In reality, the relationship between the Village People and the US president was more complex. At first the band had contested the use of the song in Trump's political rallies, only to later clarify, in a post published in 2025, that they had agreed to participate in an event linked to his second inauguration not out of adherence to his political positions, but because they were convinced that music should belong to everyone, regardless of political orientation. In recent years Willis had reiterated several times that he and the Village People considered their music everyone's heritage, refusing to let it be identified with just one political party.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
