Gloria Gaynor, from surviving to thriving – a narrative of resilience | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Gloria Gaynor’s eyes mild up as she tells me about headlining Brazil’s Rock In Rio music competition final September. “It was wonderful,” she enthuses. “That huge audience, more than 150,000 people, singing along with me…” Just months earlier than she’d topped the invoice at Bal de la Rose, in Monte Carlo for Prince Albert’s charity basis; and Gloria performs in England in August as a part of a seven-date world tour. “I haven’t just survived, I’ve thrived,” she says.

There aren’t any mirror balls in her lovely New Jersey residence, and no signal of the detritus of extravagant events, however at 81, Gloria continues to embody the enduring essence of New York disco tradition simply as certainly as her 1978 anthem I Will Survive, provided its theme tune. Life as a rollercoaster is an overused metaphor, however nothing else does justice to Gaynor’s backstory. The highs have been plentiful and exhilarating; the lows soul-sapping and stunning. As properly as career-threatening accidents, the double-Grammy profitable star has endured sexual assault, her sister’s homicide, divorce, and a authorized battle over royalties. But maybe essentially the most startling second got here in 1985 when, surrounded by drink and medicines, Gloria says “the Holy Spirit grabbed me by the collar”.

Physically grabbed? I ask. “Absolutely, physically. A real thing, an awesome thing.” She raced to the toilet, shaking, “And then I realised I was having an epiphany. God was telling me, ‘Gloria, that’s enough’.”

It has been fifty years since Gaynor was topped “Queen of the Discotheques” in Manhattan, following the success of her first hit Never Can Say Goodbye – a No.2 hit right here. Grammy-winning chart-topper, I Will Survive got here three years later and lives on in movie and TV soundtracks and karaoke bars in every single place. Penned by former Motown songwriters Perren and Fekaris, it mixed a message of self-discovery and empowerment with a driving beat and Gaynor’s wonderful heartfelt vocals. In her phrases, “It celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit and makes you feel ‘I can do this’.” Her third largest hit was 1983’s I Am What I Am – a world homosexual anthem. But if Gaynor has laurels, she’s not resting on them. In February she launched her newest single Fida Known, a cool mid-tempo groove co-written by Gloria, which manages to evoke her previous glories whereas feeling totally modern. The hook catches immediately: ‘Fida known that you never woulda loved me forever/I’da discovered somebody higher who may maintain me tight,’ she sings. Her finest songs share a easy common theme – don’t settle for second finest, rise up for your self. Fida Known is a taster for her five-song EP, Happy Tears, launched subsequent month, and Gloria performs in England in August as a part of a seven-date world tour.

Gloria’s father, nightclub singer Daniel Fowles, abandoned her household earlier than she was born. She was raised by her mom, Queenie May, and molested by one in all her boyfriends, when she was twelve. “There was always music at home – gospel, R&B, a little bit of jazz and a little bit of country. One of my brothers loved country, we told him we had found him on the doorstop,” she jokes.

She acquired her first standing ovation at a college Christmas present however didn’t realise Queenie knew about her voice till they have been cooking collectively. “She’d had surgery and couldn’t sing and asked if I could sing Lullaby Of The Leaves” – a jazz commonplace popularized by Ella Fitzgerald – “I was nearly crying. I hadn’t realised she knew I could sing. It was like performing for the Queen of England.” Years later, babysitting for mates, she remembers following the footsteps of the individual dwelling upstairs as she sang. “I went into a club one night and was called up to sing. The man upstairs was the owner of the club – I was 21. I sang Save Your Love For Me by Nancy Wilson.” Gloria took half in a neighborhood singing contest quickly after. “Dionne Warwick, who’d already released records, was in the contest as well. I thought if I’m going to beat her, I can’t just sing, I have to make myself memorable. So I sang Etta James’s Something’s Got A Hold On Me” – a bluesy gospel quantity with a two-octave vocal vary – “the whole audience sang along and I won…”  Two males working for Johnny Nash’s Jocida report label noticed her triumph and took her to Nash who launched her first single, She’ll Be Sorry, in 1968.

Gaynor has sturdy reminiscences on engaged on the Afro-American chitlin circuit with early bands. She remembers, “We complained to one club owner because he never gave us drinks. So he gave us a bottle of Southern Comfort on condition we drank it all that night. I never smoked or drank before I went onstage, but the band were so plastered it was hilarious. Thank goodness it was our last set of the night.”

Sadly, Queenie died in 1970, three years earlier than Gloria was signed to Columbia Records. Her second single with them was Never Can Say Goodbye, a breakout smash in 1975 – the 12 months New York DJs topped her their disco queen. Three years later, her profession almost ended prematurely when a mock tug-of-war on stage together with her two male backing singers misfired. “I’d slung my microphone to them and they’d grabbed the chord but they didn’t hold on to it, so when I pulled, I fell backwards over a stage monitor. I finished the show and went home but when I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t move. I was paralysed from the waist down. I was in hospital in New York for three months.” Six months later she recorded I Will Survive in LA, nonetheless carrying a again brace. “As soon as I read the lyrics I knew it would be a hit. I knew people would relate to it as I did.”

Columbia dumbly relegated the music to the B-side of her ’78 single Substitute, however DJs swiftly flipped it, propelling it to No 1. The following 12 months, Gaynor married Linwood Simon, a former New York City Police Transit officer, who turned her supervisor. She has mentioned he refused to have youngsters and favored spending the cash she earned. Champagne, medicine and partying turned a part of her life earlier than her non secular encounter. Simon labored her onerous, reserving her to carry out consistently throughout the ’80s and ’90s, particularly within the UK and Europe, the place she sang to backing tracks. She’s had a ten-piece backing band for the reason that flip of the century, together with a horn part and a trio of background singers. “Gloria Gaynor is a luxury item,” she has said. “Either you can afford her or you can’t.”

The couple divorced in 2005 and Gaynor rebuilt her life and profession, publishing her “cathartic” autobiography in 2013. Her turbulent life has been became documentary movie, Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive, and a brand new biopic, I Will Survive: The Gloria Gaynor Story. Her again downside returned in 2019, requiring 18 hours of surgical procedure. Gloria now does CrossFit two to a few instances every week together with her private coach to maintain in form, and hosts dinner events as much as twelve instances a 12 months, creating her personal dishes like Chicken a la Gaynor. “I feel like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon,” she says. “I still have lots of things I want to do – a whole bucket list. I want to do a gospel concert in Carnegie Hall” – to carry out her Grammy-winning 2019 gospel album, Testimony. Headlining New York’s Radio City Music Hall and visiting Machu Picchu in Peru enchantment too, however first comes Deva Fest in August.

“I love UK audiences. You were a little reserved when I first started. I had to do a little speech saying there would be no reserve at the show, and that the person next to you is discrete and won’t tell anyone if you let your hair down. But UK audiences are very enthusiastic now and I know you’ll sing along with me.” I Will Survive continues to be within the set in fact however she says, “When I sing it now, I’m singing it for other people, hoping it helps them get to where I am and beyond.”

*Gloria Gaynor performs at Deva Fest (Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire, England) on August 9. Tickets from https://www.devafest.co.uk/book-saturday-tickets

Gloria’s biopic I Will Survive: The Gloria Gaynor Story and the documentary movie, Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive can be found to look at on Prime Video. Her new single When I See You is out now and her 5 Song EP entitled, “Happy Tears,” shall be launched digitally worldwide on June sixth.  You can pre-save the digital EP utilizing this hyperlink: https://orcd.co/happytearsgg