{"id":749237,"date":"2026-07-01T09:43:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/?p=749237"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:09:28","slug":"village-people-lead-singer-victor-willis-dead-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2026\/07\/village-people-lead-singer-victor-willis-dead-at-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Village People Lead Singer Victor Willis Dead at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Victor Willis, former lead singer of the disco group Village People. Photo: WENN.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Village People lead singer and policeman Victor Willis died Tuesday, June 30, after a battle with an aggressive illness. He was 74.<\/p>\n

His family broke the news in a statement<\/a><\/strong> on Facebook.<\/p>\n

“We are profoundly sad to announce the death of VICTOR WILLIS, lead singer of Village People. Victor passed on June 30, 2026 of a short but aggressive illness. Privacy is requested.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His wife, Karen Huff-Willis, also released a statement that read: “It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, Victor Willis.”<\/p>\n

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Victor Willis, former lead singer of the disco group Village People on Dec. 11, 2009. Photo: WENN.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Willis was the voice behind the group’s timeless disco anthem “YMCA.”<\/p>\n

“YMCA” was a huge hit for the band in the 1980s. The song found a new generation of fans after President Donald Trump began dancing to it at his events.<\/p>\n

The group performed the song live at Trump’s pre-Inauguration event in January 2025. The song is often played at Trump’s rallies.<\/p>\n

“The financial benefits have been great,” said Willis, who wrote the song. “‘YMCA’ is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song,” Willis said<\/a><\/strong> in 2025.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect\u2019s continued use of YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”<\/p>\n

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The Village People pose for a publicity shot in 1978 (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When “YMCA” was released on Casablanca Records in 1978, the smash hit made Willis a millionaire. At one time, he carried over $40,000 cash in his pockets.<\/p>\n

Willis also owned half of the copyright to the group’s music. The royalties continued to make him rich long after the band’s chart-topping years were over.<\/p>\n

Willis lived with his wife Karen, a lawyer and entertainment executive, in a multi-million-dollar six-bedroom mansion in San Diego, California. The couple married in 2007.<\/p>\n

Willis previously married singer\/actress Phylicia Allen<\/a><\/strong> (now Phylicia Rashad) in 1978. They divorced in 1982. He wrote the lyrics for Rashad’s 1978 disco concept album, Josephine Superstar<\/em>, which was dedicated to the late singer\/actress Josephine Baker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Village People lead singer and policeman Victor Willis died Tuesday, June 30, after a battle with an aggressive illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[843,3326,8829,19157,9162],"class_list":{"0":"post-749237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rip","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-celebrity-deaths","10":"tag-disco","11":"tag-victor-willis","12":"tag-village-people"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749237"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749248,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749237\/revisions\/749248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}