Producer/Composer Jacques Morali, with partner Henri Belolo, found Felipe dancing in his Indian costume in a crowd in NY’s Greenwich Village. Felipe’s special visual attraction brought the idea to mind to put together a group of Village icons from various American social groups. Soon after, Morali and Belolo saw Victor Willis in Broadway’s The Wiz and Victor brought along Alex Briley to play a G.I. With partner Henri Belolo, Morali held auditions for 3 more performers and Village People was formed.
Selling more than 100 million recordings, Village People are an instant phenomenom with hits San Francisco/In Hollywood, Macho Man, YMCA, In the Navy, Go West and more. The Disco Era is in fullbloom. The group wins many worldwide awards including the American Music Award-Favorite Musical Group 1979, AGVA’s Georgie Award, West Germany’s Gold Lion Award for music excellence, Brazil’s 1981 Award for Best Act, etc.
Village People are on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and are featured in Guiness Book of Hits, Time, Playboy, Playgirl, GQ, US, People, Paris Match, World Book Encyclopedia, Dick Clark’s 25 Years of Rock ‘n Roll & hundreds more. Television appearances include The Love Boat, Bob Hope Show, 20/20 (twice), American Bandstand, Solid Gold, Soul Train, Midnight Special and dozens more in more than 20 countries.
In 1990 on CBS Records(Australia) they recorded the top-ten hit Living in the Wildlife and in 1995 sang with the German Soccer Team on the BMG Records (Germany) number one hit Far Away in America.
They were the half-time entertainment for Australia’s Rugby Grand Finals seen by more people than the Superbowl. Their music is played during the seven inning stretch at dozens of baseball games and they often entertain sports fans with live performances following soccer and hockey games as well. In 1996 they were honored to be a part of the world champion Yankees ticker-tape parade in New York City.
Recent TV appearances include Fox’s ‘Wendy Williams Show’ (2010), NBC’s The Singing Bee , Poland’s Sopot Festival and Italy’s RAI. Village People broke audience records at Disney World’s EPCOT in 2007.
For the final season before they tear down Yankee Stadium, Major League Baseball asked Village People to perform YMCA with the grounds crew at the All-Star Game on July 15, 2008. And in September 2008, Village People received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, between Liberace and Betty Grable!
