Village People co-creator Henri Belolo has died at the age of 82.
Belolo wrote the early Village People hits ‘San Francisco’, ‘Macho Man’, ‘YMCA’, ‘In The Navy’, ‘Go West’. His other creation was The Ritchie Family. He wrote their hit ‘Best Disco In Town’.
Belolo was born in Casablanca and in 1960 became the A&R guy for Polydor Records in Paris. Henri moved to the USA in 1973 and set up Can’t Stop Productions. Jacques Morali joined the company in 1975 and in 1978 the two created The Village People.
The Village People’s Victor Willis took Belolo to court in 2015 claiming that he didn’t write the songs and had his name legally removed from the credits. Despite the legal battle Willis paid tribute to Belolo on Facebook and Twitter saying, “I was so honored to met him and now im blessed to be in the Scorpio Music Family, we continue to do what henri belolo did in the past : A Little French Team can Hit the world, he & we did it.”
Sad to hear that Henri Belolo pass away. All toughts to the family 🙏🏾 i was so honored to met him and now im blessed to be in the Scorpio Music Family, we continue to do what henri belolo did in the past : A Little French Team can Hit the world, he & we did it @scorpio_music pic.twitter.com/2re0jBvTJI
— Willy William (@willy_william) August 6, 2019
Henri Belolo received France’s highest honour, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015.
You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
