The wife of the longtime lead singer of the Village People is taking Disney to court after saying the entertainment giant treated the iconic nightclub group poorly, failed to pay them on time and subsequently banned them from performing at Walt Disney World for years to come.
Karen Willis, wife of singer and co-founder Victor Willis, and administrator of the group’s trademark for live performances, filed a lawsuit against Disney late last year on behalf of Victor and the group, according to documents obtained by TMZand are seeking more than $20 million in damages.
Her husband, Victor Willis, is the only original member of the group still performing under the Village People name, and co-wrote and sang the title track on most of the group’s classic albums and hit singles, including YMCA, Macho Man and In The Navy.
DailyMail.com has contacted Disney for comment.
Karen says the Village People were booked for a performance at Walt Disney World in Florida in 2018, after about a decade of annual performances at the theme park.
The Village People are suing Disney for more than $20 million after the group was allegedly treated poorly at a 2018 performance at Florida’s Walt Disney World and subsequently excluded; a version of the group performs in Poland in 2007
Karen Willis, manager and wife of lead singer and Village People co-founder Victor Willis (pictured), says Disney prevented her from helping in the sound booth at the 2018 show.
But he alleges that performance during the two-day work was poor for the first time in years.
According to Karen Willis, she attempted to enter the front-of-house sound booth to make sure the audio was as good as possible during the Village People show, but Disney employees allegedly stopped her from entering and then made her leave. It is unclear whether Disney had previously allowed him to assist the band in that capacity.
She claims that later, during the band’s time at Disney World, she and Victor were attacked by a group of “overzealous fans”, who she claims were “planted” in the park by a group of feuding former Village People members.
In a complicated twist, Willis, who left The Village after the group’s initial success but returned to live performances in 2017, had sued the group’s record label and production company to reinstate him and give him the right to perform with a new group under the name Willis. Name of the townspeople.
The group that had performed as the Village People for decades at that time, which included several dancing and singing members of the Village People who were formed to back up Willis’s lead vocals, had their rights to perform under the name revoked.
Karen Willis claims in her lawsuit that the members who were kicked out of the Village People were feuding with her husband, and that’s why they planted dangerous fans at Disney World who attacked her and Victor, although it’s unclear if she has any evidence. of that alleged conspiracy.
She says the Village People’s contract stipulates that they will be provided with additional security, but accuses Disney of not providing the required security when they were in the park.
But the biggest problem with the 2018 performance revolved around the group’s pay, or lack thereof.
Although Disney sent checks for the show, they were supposedly made out to the wrong people or groups, so Victor and the Village People were unable to recover the money they were owed.
Karen alleges that when she and Victor alerted Disney about the payment issue, they ignored them. It is unclear whether proper payments were ever made and, if so, how long it took before proper checks were sent.
She also alleges that overzealous fans attacked her and Victor in the park during the two-day work, and accuses Disney of ignoring part of their contract that requires additional security; Disney World photographed in 2022
Willis (center front) and current members of the group suffered delays in their payments after Disney allegedly wrote checks to the wrong people and then discarded them when informed of the error; one of the earliest Village People performances photographed in 1976
Karen Willis accuses Disney of not rehiring the Village People after the 2018 concert, even though the group performed annually at Disney World for about a decade before that time; A version of the group is photographed in Poland in 2007.
Disney filed to dismiss the lawsuit, but their motion was recently denied, meaning the Village People’s lawsuit can move forward.
Following the performance fiasco, the lawsuit accuses Disney of failing to hire the Village People in the six years since the 2018 show, despite having booked the group annually for years before that.
Karen Willis says in the Village People lawsuit that she believes the House of Mouse is intentionally not hiring the group, possibly in retaliation for the response to allegedly poor performances surrounding the 2018 show at Disney World.
In response, Disney filed a motion to have the case dismissed, saying it had the right not to hire the Village People again, although it is unclear if it gave a reason why the invitations stopped after 2018.
However, Disney’s motion was recently denied, so the Village People’s lawsuit will be able to continue.