Village People is an American group formed at the end of the 1970s by producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, who recruited singer Victor Willis as the leader of the group. Group whose name is inspired by the village of Greenwich Village, renowned as the reference district for homosexuals in New York.
A group that released a first self-titled album in 1977, an album that met with significant success and forced the producers to surround Willis with dancers so that he was not alone on stage. Dancers meant to symbolize American masculinity and the macho characters of the Gay Fantasy.
A success that is confirmed and amplified the following year in 1978 with the release of the album "Macho man", an album carried at arm's length by the single of the same name. An album that will propel the group to the front of the stage for the less sensational...
But that’s without counting on the release the same year of the huge album “Cruisin’”, an album from which a small single called…“Y.M.C.A” will be extracted ! The Single will become a real planetary phenomenon and propel the group to a level of success that they could never have imagined even in their wildest dreams.
Then it's the turn of the album "Go west" to be released the following year in 1979, an album which will produce a second legendary Single with the title "In the Navy", a title which will allow the group to return definitively in the musical legend of this end of the 20th century.
A year 1979 which also saw the release of a second opus with "Live and sleazy", an album with less success than its predecessor and which, to say the least, will struggle to produce the slightest planetary class hit...
The group will raise its head at the very beginning of the 80s with the release of the album "Can't stop the music" in 1980, an album which will mainly produce the Single that bears the name of the album.
But it will indeed be the last time that the group will know the favors of the public because all that will be released thereafter will only know a level of success altogether mitigated...
To discover or rediscover.
Discography (among others…) :
San Francisco (You’ve got me) 1977
Macho man 1978
In Hollyxood (Everybody is a star) 1978
Just a gigolo 1978
Y.M.C.A 1978
I am what I am 1978
In the navy 1979
Go west 1979
I wanna shake your hand 1979
Sleazy 1979
Ready for the 80’s 1979
Can’t stop the music 1980
Magic night 1980
Do you wanna spend the night 1981
5 O’ clock in the morning 1981
Fox on the box 1982
Sex over the phone 1985
New York city 1985
Far away in America 1994
Let’s go back to the dancefloor 2013
A very merry Christmas to you 2018
If you believe 2020
My agenda 2020
Clips :
1977...the beginnings of a small group that came out of nowhere and which borders on caricature by the look of its members. But it is precisely this caricatural side which will make its glory and its success thereafter...
1978...their first title will have revealed them to the eyes of the whole world and the second will confirm that this group is truly extraordinary. From all points of view !
1978...surprisingly, after 2 titles which worked particularly well, the group experienced a relative poor performance in the Charts with this title. Anyway, nothing to worry about at this stage...
1978...they try to deliver here an ultra Dance version of the title "Schoner, gigolo, arm gigolo', Austrian title originally released in...1929 ! Daring bet but lost bet on this one despite an obvious will to do well...
1978...after 2 relative underperformances, the group decides to pull himself together and he will do so in a way that is spectacular to say the least ! They are going to deliver here quite simply an anthology Dance title, a model of the genre which will not only offer them the biggest success of their entire discography but which will also bring them into the musical Pantheon of this end of the 20th century in a sensational way. CULT !
1978 ... impossible for this title to compete with the previous jewel as the bar has been set high. From there to know such a mixed success questions all the same...
1979...the group's ability to bounce back is impressive, the proof with this new title ! The band lands here a new planetary mega hit which further confirms its status as an indisputable and undisputed phenomenon of the moment...
1979...new top hit in stride. Paradoxically, it is not Village People that will stay in history for this title but another, namely the Pet Shop Boys, which will make it one of the most emblematic titles of the 90s !
1979...a title that will go completely unnoticed when it is far from deserving. But the group rose very quickly and above all very high and the descent behind was going to be brutal to say the least...
1979...the group still manages to stay afloat a little, but the deceleration is, to say the least, brutal and the stall with the head of the race is obvious. They will have to recover and quickly...
1979...this title will not change much in the situation and we must therefore hope for a possible rebound during the following decade. The future will tell us...
1980...business resumes with this title and puts the group back in the front runners de facto. Hope it lasts as they say...
1980...unfortunately the upturn was short-lived. The group relapses directly and the dropout will this time be irreversible...
1981... the group did not know how to reinvent himself at the beginning of the 80s as he should have and he will pay a high price for it. Hard law of the trade...
1981...this will not prevent him from continuing the adventure but it is clear that the best years are now behind...
1982...the group is no more than a shadow of himself and struggles to question himself. A continuation of the course which therefore promises to be the most complicated...
1985 ... a questioning that finally arrives in the middle of the 80s. But it is far too late and the public has long since left to look elsewhere ...
1985...England is still making eyes at them but it's only there that the group still manages to get away with it. For how much longer...
1994...big air hole of 9 years and here they are back in this year 1994 in a form that we will qualify as certain. But the style of the group is really too caricatured now and marginalizes him more than it puts him on the front of the stage...
2013...every time we tell ourselves that it's the last title and each time they come back again and again. Certainly the mega air holes are multiplying but they are there all the same...
2018...and they even do in the special Christmas title, a classic in the United States when the groups are at the end of their course. And each time, it's pretty good...
2020...the special COVID-19 title. We don't even count the groups that will have taken advantage of the confinement to produce this kind of title as there will have been...
2020...a totally improbable title that no one would have imagined to be their universe and yet they are there. From afar but they are there...
Wiki :
Official Website :
Greatest Hits :
Discography :