Victor Willis, lead singer of the disco group Village Folks whose hit “Y.M.C.A.” turned a fixture at rallies for President Trump, has died, his spouse and the band stated in Fb posts on Wednesday. He was 74.
“It’s with profound disappointment that I have to announce the demise of my husband, VICTOR WILLIS,” Karen-Huff Willis stated in a assertion on the musician’s Fb web page. “Victor handed away on Tuesday June 30, 2026 because of a brief, however aggressive sickness.”
The band shared a related assertion on its Fb web page.
The Texas-born musician was a co-founder of the Village Folks and co-wrote hits together with “Y.M.C.A,” “Within the Navy” and “Macho Man” that swept the world’s dancefloors within the late Seventies.
With their flamboyant costumes and choreography, the group turned a popular culture phenomenon, focusing on disco’s giant homosexual viewers with camp fantasy characters of butch builders, bikers, cowboys and troopers.
Willis left the group in 1980 however rejoined in 2017.
Picture by Daniel Boczarski/Redferns/Getty
He struggled with drug dependancy and took a plea deal over cocaine possession in 2006.
“I received very depressed over time and determined to only drop off the map. So I received into medication,” he informed the San Diego Union Tribune in 2015.
“Y.M.C.A.,” whose lyrics urge “younger males” to go to the Younger Males’s Christian Affiliation in New York, turned an anthem for the LGBTQ group and past.
However some say the music has been co-opted by the American proper wing motion following its use at rallies and occasions supporting Mr. Trump.
“I do not endorse Trump, I’ve by no means endorsed Trump, nor has the Village Folks,” Willis informed the BBC in 2020. “However due to the copyright legal guidelines in america, he is capable of play our music any time he needs to.”
The band carried out “Y.M.C.A.” at a Trump rally in January 2025, earlier than the Republican was inaugurated for his second time period as president.
“Let’s give President Trump an opportunity, no matter what you will have thought of him up to now,” Willis stated on the time. “Let’s have a look at what he’ll do shifting ahead, and if he does issues to limit LGBTQ rights, Village Folks would be the first to talk out.”
In 2012, when Willis was away from the group, a decide dominated the singer might reclaim at the least partial possession of the copyrights to greater than two dozen of the their songs, together with “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “Within the Navy.” The decision paved the way in which for his return to the group in 2017, BBC Information reported.
