\u201cVictor passed away on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 [local time] as a result of a short, but aggressive illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willis was born in Dallas, Texas on July 1, 1951.<\/p>\n
He developed his vocal talents singing gospel music in his father\u2019s Baptist church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
He performed on Broadway in his twenties, appearing in the original production of The Wiz, later joining its Australian production.<\/p>\n
He co-founded the concept group Village People with French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo in 1977.<\/p>\n
Initially seen as a novelty act in the disco scene, the group comprised six exaggerated masculine characters – each dressed as a recognisable American archetype.<\/p>\n
Willis dressed as the group\u2019s trademark policeman, though he also often performed as a naval officer.<\/p>\n
Powered by his commanding lead vocals, the group\u2019s infectious dance anthems propelled them to worldwide success.<\/p>\n
YMCA topped the charts in more than a dozen countries and reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1979.<\/p>\n
The song\u2019s enduring legacy was recognised in 2020 when it was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n
The song became an enduring anthem within the LGBTQ+ community and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after it became a regular feature at Donald Trump\u2019s campaign rallies and inauguration-related events.<\/p>\n
Willis later disputed the song\u2019s reputation as a gay anthem and, after earlier criticism, said Trump\u2019s use of it had generated millions of dollars in royalties.<\/p>\n
In New Zealand, Macho Man reached No. 7 and was among the top 40 singles of 1978.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cVictor passed away on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 [local time] as a result of a short, but aggressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52222,20700,18919,159312,6179,7126,36599,156,63826,9832,4508,4507,7240,1329,23739,3025,111,139,69,384,4625,544,43510,23534,11548,17454,792],"class_list":["post-504354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-1970s","tag-20700","tag-aged","tag-define","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-disco","tag-entertainment","tag-founding","tag-helped","tag-hits","tag-late","tag-lead","tag-member","tag-memorable","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-singer","tag-some","tag-victor","tag-village","tag-voice","tag-whose","tag-willis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}