“I Will Survive” By Gloria Gaynor Is Inspired By Her Own Struggles And Still Inspires Us All
A song can be an incredibly personal creation. Many capture general feelings of happiness, anger, affection. Some can have very specific stories yet all sorts of listeners can relate to it. Such is the case for “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, which is rooted in her very real story and struggles, but can get people feeling pumped up, heartbroken, and ready to conquer their next battle even today.
“I Will Survive” was first recorded by Gaynor in October 1978, just in time for her album Love Tracks. That gave it all of ’79 to dominate the airwaves, lounge out for three weeks at the very top of the US Billboard Hot 100, win a Grammy plus two nominations, get certified platinum, and, in later years, get selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. But even without all those numbers, the very real stories from listeners and from Gaynor herself, who just launched a major comeback, show this song’s real strength is in its power to inspire.
Gloria Gaynor tapped into real emotions to compose “I Will Survive”
“I Will Survive” is a bittersweet soup of many different challenging yet relatable experiences, both from Gloria Gaynor and all others who had a hand in making this empowering anthem. Principal writer Dino Fekaris says the track has roots in the time he was fired from Motown Records after seven years a a staff writer; a song he wrote for Generation, performed by Good Earth, came on, and he took that as an encouraging sign to keep going, and he even said aloud to himself, “I’m going to make it. I’m going to be a songwriter. I will survive.”