Victor Willis, 1951 – 2026

Singer and composer Victor Willis—the cop of The Village People—died on June 30. He was 74. Willis acted with the Negro Ensemble Company, and on Broadway in Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Wiz (where he met his first wife, actress Phylicia Rashad). In 1977 he answered a casting call for butch singers with pornstaches, and was cast by producer Jacques Morali in the high-camp Village People. In addition to his singing duties, Willis wrote or co-wrote the hits “YMCA,” “Macho Man,” “In the Navy,” “Go West,” “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me),” and “Key West.” Willis left the group in 1983 (he did not appear in the enjoyably terrible movie Can't Stop the Music). He tried to distance himself form The Village People and started a solo career (though he later participated in some Village People reunions). Willis later courted controversy by allowing Donald Trump to use “YMCA” at his rallies, and saying, “The group performs a masculine show. Gay people like us, straight people like us. But we’re not a gay group.”