Willis co-wrote “Macho Man,” “In the Navy,” “Go West,” and “Y.M.C.A.” for the Village People, then won a series of copyright rulings between 2012 and 2015 that handed him substantial ownership of those hits. “Y.M.C.A.” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart and “In the Navy” hit No. 3.
He was the guy in the police uniform (helmet and all), the “young man with the big voice” that producer Jacques Morali built the group around in 1977. A minister’s son who sang gospel in church, he’d done Broadway in the original run of “The Wiz” before disco made him famous.
The “Y.M.C.A.” lyric came from his own life in New York. He lived at the Empire Hotel and frequented a Y.M.C.A. on West 63rd Street, and he later said he pictured someone new in town who’d blown all their money and was “just sitting there not knowing which way to go with their life.” The Library of Congress added the song to the National Recording Registry in 2020.
Fame came with a cost. A 2006 arrest sent him to treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic, and he got sober in 2007, later saying the haze of drugs was gone and he could finally see clearly again.
“Y.M.C.A.” found a second life at Donald Trump’s rallies, and Willis, who first objected to it, came around and called the song a “monster” hit all over again decades on. Trump posted a tribute on Truth Social calling Willis “a great and happy guy who loved that I used his group’s song, YMCA, at my Rallies,” and adding, “We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week.” Willis rejoined the band for touring and new music in 2017, and last year defended playing a Trump inauguration event, writing that it wasn’t an endorsement of Trump’s policies “no matter what you say to the contrary.” In May, he and the group sang “Happy Birthday” and “Y.M.C.A.” for Secretary of State Marco Rubio at an event in India.
His wife, Karen Huff-Willis, announced his death on July 1 and asked for privacy. He was one day shy of his 75th birthday.
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Source: Thoughtcatalog.com
