Gloria Gaynor

**Gloria Fowles**, better known as **Gloria Gaynor** (born September 7, 1943), is an American disco singer who had numerous disco hits, including "Never Can Say Goodbye", "Reach Out, I'll Be There" and - most notably - "I Will Survive".

## History

Gloria Fowles was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Daniel Fowles and Queenie Mae Proctor. Her grandmother lived nearby and was involved in her upbringing. She enjoyed listening to the radio, and to records by Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. Her father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit. Gloria grew up as a tomboy; she had five brothers and one sister. Her brothers sang gospel and formed a quartet with a friend, but she wasn't allowed to sing with the group because she was a girl, and her younger brother Arthur wasn't allowed to join because he was too young, though Arthur later acted as her tour manager. The family was relatively poor, but Gaynor recalls the house being filled with laughter and happiness, and the dinner table being open to neighborhood friends. They moved to a housing project in 1960, where Gaynor attended South Side High School; she graduated in 1961.

Gaynor had long held a desire for singing. According to her in her autobiography, "All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it". Her singing career began as a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz and R&B music band of the 1960s. She recorded "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" - the first of her releases where she used the name Gloria Gaynor - in 1965, for Johnny Nash's "Jocida" label. In 1971, after several years of performing in local clubs and along the East Coast, she joined Columbia Records, where she released the single "Honeybee" in 1973. The single was unsuccessful at first, but with a move to MGM Records, she recorded the album *Never Can Say Goodbye*, which was released in 1975. Produced by Paul Leka, Tony Bongiovi and Meco Monardo, it not only included an extended version of "Honeybee", but covers of The Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye" and The Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There", all of which were segued into one continuous mix on the A-side of the album. Not only was the A-side of the album popular at discotheques, but all three of the songs on the A-side were released as singles in edited form and became radio hits. Riding off of the success of this first album, Gaynor released her second album - *Experience Gloria Gaynor* - that same year, which contained the hit "(If You Want It) Do It Yourself". She released her third album - *I've Got You* - on Polydor Records in 1976, after which she moved away from her old production team and released the albums *Glorious* and *Gloria Gaynor's Park Avenue Sound* to more modest success.

However, it was the release of Gaynor's 1978 album *Love Tracks* that produced what would be her best-known song. The album produced the single "Substitute", but it was the B-side - a sparsely-produced song called "I Will Survive" - that propelled her to stardom. The B-side was first played by Richie Kaczor of Studio 54, and other DJs picked up on it as well, so much so that it was re-released as an A-side, becoming a #1 hit in 1979. A music video for the song was shot at Xenon, with Sheila Reid-Pender making an appearance rollerskating. Also in 1979, Gaynor recorded the song "Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away" for the soundtrack to the movie *Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula*. She had a further hit that year with "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" from the album *I Have a Right*.

Success would not be everlasting for Gaynor, however. With the backlash against disco in the US, her next two albums - 1980's *Stories* and 1981's *I Kinda Like Me* - fared poorly, and the singles from the album did lukewarm at best. Afterwards, she became a Christian and released a more R&B/pop-based album called *Gloria Gaynor* in 1982. She did, however, continue to flirt with the then-current trend of dance pop, releasing the album *I Am Gloria Gaynor* in 1984, which contained the hit "I Am What I Am", originally from the musical *La Cage Aux Folles*. Her 1986 album *The Power of Gloria Gaynor* took a more soft rock direction and was unsuccessful, though it did peak at #81 on the UK Albums Chart.

In the 90s, with disco music coming back into fashion, Gaynor's career saw a revival, and she even dabbled in acting in the later part of the decade, appearing on *That '70s Show*, *The Wayans Bros.* and *Ally McBeal*, among other roles. She had further success in 2002 with the album *I Wish You Love*, with its two singles - "Just Keep Thinking About You" and "I Never Knew"- both topping Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play and securing moderate to heavy dance format radio airplay. The latter song also charted No. 30 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.

In late 2002, Gaynor appeared with R&B stars on the "Rhythm, Love, and Soul" edition of the PBS series American Soundtrack. Her performance of the disco hit "I Will Survive" and new single "I Never Knew" was included on the accompanying live album that was released in 2004.

On September 19, 2005, Gaynor was honored twice when she and her music were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, in the "Artist" category, along with fellow disco artists Chic and Sylvester. Her classic anthem "I Will Survive" was inducted under the "Records" category. In January 2008, the American Diabetes Association named Gaynor the Honorary Spokesperson of the 2008 "NYC Step Out to Fight Diabetes Walk". More television appearances followed in the late 2000s with 2009 appearances on *The John Kerwin Show*, *The Wendy Williams Show*, and *The View* to promote the 30th anniversary of "I Will Survive". In 2010, she appeared on *Last Comic Standing* and *The Tonight Show*. In 2013, she released the Contemporary Christian album *We Will Survive*.

On May 16, 2015, Gaynor was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by Dowling College. In 2017, she made a cameo appearance as a flight attendant in a Capital One commercial, while Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Barkley, and Spike Lee sang "I Will Survive".

In 2016, "I Will Survive" was selected for induction into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, and on May 6, 2017, Gaynor performed with her band at the Library of Congress' celebration of disco music at Bibliodiscotheque, a disco dance party in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Due to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Harvey on the state of Texas in August 2017, Gaynor rewrote the lyrics to "I Will Survive", changing the title to "Texas Will Survive", and posted a video of herself singing the song on Twitter on August 30, 2017.

In December 2019 "I Will Survive" trended on TikTok and Gaynor performed the dance at the LifeMinute TV studios in Times Square, NY.

In January 2020, she won her second Grammy Award in her career, 40 years after her first, for her roots gospel album *Testimony*.

In 2021, Gaynor returned to disco music when she recorded "Can't Stop Writing Songs About You" with Australian singer Kylie Minogue for the reissue of Minogue's fifteenth studio album *Disco* entitled *Disco: Guest List Edition*. The collaboration occurred following Gaynor praising Minogue for keeping disco alive with her album of the same name.

In April 2021, Gaynor recorded "Brand New" with the veteran Contemporary Christian band MercyMe.

In 2022, Gaynor competed in season eight of *The Masked Singer* as "Mermaid" who rode on a giant clam-like vehicle that the Men in Black had to push around. After being eliminated on "Andrew Lloyd Webber Night" alongside Mario Cantone as "Maize", Gaynor did her performance of "I Will Survive".

## Discography

### Albums

* *Never Can Say Goodbye* (1975, MGM Records)
* *Experience Gloria Gaynor* (1975, MGM Records)
* *I've Got You* (1976, Polydor Records)
* *Glorious* (1977, Polydor Records)
* *Gloria Gaynor's Park Avenue Sound* (1978, Polydor Records)
* *Love Tracks* (1978, Polydor Records)
* *I Have a Right* (1979, Polydor Records)
* *Stories* (1980, Polydor Records)
* *I Kinda Like Me* (1981, Polydor Records)
* *Gloria Gaynor* (1982, Atlantic Records)
* *I Am Gloria Gaynor* (1984, Silver Blue Records)
* *The Power of Gloria Gaynor* (1986, Stylus Music)
* *Love Affair* (1992, New Music International)
* *I'll Be There* (1994, Radikal Records)
* *The Answer* (1997, Florical Music)
* *I Wish You Love* (2002, Logic Records)
* *We Will Survive* (2013, Glolo, LLC)
* *Testimony* (2019, Gaither Music Group)

## Trivia

* "I Will Survive" has been covered in numerous languages. Among others, Gaynor once recorded a Spanish version titled "Yo Vivire", Regine recorded a French version titled "Je Survivrai" and Galina Sheveleva recorded a Russian version titled "Ya Vyzhila" ("Я выжила").