At 81, Gloria Gaynor is going through a sweet moment, full of projects for 2025 after winning a second Grammy with an album that no one believed in, as she says in an interview with EFE in Spain, a country that has given her “more special moments.” than any other.”
“I feel very motivated. I think what keeps me young is that I don’t spend a lot of time with people my age. What’s more, I don’t think I have a single friend my age, they’re all about 20 years younger,” the iconic ‘I Will Survive’ singer acknowledges with a laugh.
This Saturday he will sing in Madrid eight years after his last performance in the city, a period in which he published with great success ‘Testimony’ (2019), Grammy for best gospel album, a genre that he wanted to cultivate in the 70s.
“My ex-husband, who was my manager at the time, kept saying to wait until I got the Grammy and then I could make that album. And as I often say: ‘God wanted me not to get that Grammy in the end until I made the album,’” he recalls.
It wasn’t easy. “They kept discouraging me, from record company to record company, and in the end I decided that I would release it on my own,” he says about a long 7-year process, not without miracles.
But at the last minute he reached an agreement with Spring House Productions. “And here I am, with my second Grammy,” she says proudly.
This Saturday the Spanish public will be able to exclusively listen to an unreleased song, ‘Reaching for the Gold’, which will be part of the EP that will be released in 2025 and for which he has worked with authors who wrote hits for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor or Dolly Parton.
“It won’t be a gospel album, but it will have that inspiring part, in line with my entire career of motivating people,” he says.
In fact, if there is a hopeful song par excellence, it is ‘I Will Survive’, which his company wanted to release as the ‘B side’ of another cut, but which Gaynor rescued to give it greater relevance as part of his sixth album, ‘Love Tracks’ (1978).
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Gaynor is a great icon of the LGTBQ+ community
“It’s my favorite song in my repertoire because I know it’s going to help me fulfill my first goal in any concert: give the audience something that will remain even when the concert is over,” he explains about this success that gave him his first Grammy.
Faced with Donna Summer, who regretted having recorded songs like ‘Love To Love You Baby’ for going against her religious principles, Gaynor sees no problems reconciling her deep faith and her status as an icon of the LGTBq+ community, thank you above all to that song. “God loves me, why would I be against anyone who loves me?” he argues.
‘I Will Survive’ was also one of the first times in music history in which a woman exhibited her strength after a breakup, a trait seen in recent hits like ‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus. “Yes, women are powerful and we will not die for not having a man by our side,” she subscribes.
It is enough to ask him if he considers that idea part of his legacy, for him to respond forcefully: “Yes, absolutely. “It is a very important part of my legacy.”
Along these lines, he mounts a strong defense of disco music against those who accused this style of being a vehicle of evasion without social commitment: “It is the only music in history that has brought together people of different races, creeds, colors, nationality or age group.”
In her answers she demonstrates that strong social commitment, which was what led her to study Psychology 10 years ago. “The hardest thing was doing my homework. I often saw myself in the lobby of hotels in different countries, doing homework in the middle of the night because there was no internet in the rooms,” he recalls with humor.
He did so to found an organization that would raise awareness among young parents who had been away from home about the importance of participating in their children’s lives.
“My brothers and I grew up without a father, so I know the damage it does to you psychologically and it haunts you forever,” says Gaynor, who in the end preferred to financially help an organization already created.
A good part of all this can be seen in the film about his life that will also be released next year, material that assures that it will surprise with the intimate details of his professional and personal “struggles.”
With information from EFE.
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