{"id":527454,"date":"2026-07-01T10:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527454\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T10:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:56:07","slug":"village-people-lead-singer-victor-willis-dies-aged-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527454\/","title":{"rendered":"Village People lead singer Victor Willis dies aged 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

Village People lead singer Victor Willis has died aged 74, a post on the band’s official Facebook page has confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Texas-born musician was the lead singer and co-writer of the band’s biggest hits including YMCA, Go West and In the Navy.<\/p>\n

Willis, who performed with a version of the disco band at a number of events for US President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2025, died following a “short but aggressive illness” on Monday, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

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

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Village People were known for their fancy dress-style costumes, with Willis playing characters including a police officer, admiral and an athlete during performances. He left the group in 1980 but rejoined in 2017.<\/p>\n

When Mr Trump began using YMCA in his 2020 re-election campaign, which he lost to former US president Joe Biden, the group initially issued a cease and desist letter.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump used the song again in his successful 2024 election campaign, which concluded with a line-up of the band performing at events around his 2025 inauguration.<\/p>\n

The performances came despite one former Village People member Jim Newman, saying the original band “would never ever” perform at a Trump rally in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\"Victor
\nVillage People were known for their fancy dress-style costumes, with Willis playing characters including a police officer<\/p>\n

In 2020, Willis himself said his band did not endorse Mr Trump, who has also used the group\u2019s song Macho Man at his rallies.<\/p>\n

He told the BBC, prior to his performances at Trump rallies: “I like hearing music at all times and I like the fact that fans of all kinds, Democrats or Republicans, they all like YMCA and that is something that is pleasing to me.<\/p>\n

“As far as endorsing Trump, I don\u2019t endorse Trump, I\u2019ve never endorsed Trump, nor has Village People.<\/p>\n

“We have even asked him basically to stop even playing our music at his rallies.”<\/p>\n

Willis is survived by his wife, Karen Huff-Willis.<\/p>\n

Source: Press Association and AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Village People lead singer Victor Willis has died aged 74, a post on the band’s official Facebook page…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-527454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}