US band Village People: “YMCA” singer Victor Willis is dead

“It is with deep sadness that I have to announce the death of my husband, Victor Willis,” said the singer’s wife on online networks. “Victor died on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, as a result of a brief but aggressive illness.”

Texas-born Willis was one of the Pioneers of the disco movement of the late 1970s. He became known as the lead singer of the six-piece band Village People, put together in New York by the French producer duo Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, which celebrated huge hits with songs such as “YMCA”, “In the Navy” and “Macho Man”.

The band with the characters police officer, soldier, construction worker, rocker, cowboy and Indian also became legendary because of their costumes. “YMCA,” a song about the Association of Christian Young Men with the English abbreviation YMCA, became an anthem for the gay movement and, most recently, for Trump.