Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive, 1978

It’s one of the most inspiring songs of defiance ever written. The way Gloria Gaynor sings it tells me she must have known the pain herself.

She has been betrayed, discarded. She remembers how she almost whimpered. The tune is sad, withdrawn, injured, almost crying.

At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side. But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong and I grew strong and I learned how to get along.

By Barbi on 2024 03 17

I was going through a divorce that year. How would I make it? Well, people don't die from life being hard. I would be so poor as I walked away. Well, I was poor with him and miserable. I could make steps to change my life. It was my anthem. It got me up every morning and walking back into school as a single mom with 2 kids under 5. I WILL survive!
My daughter who was 4 at the time wondered how we would make it. But we were together and we WOULD SURVIVE! She is now 50 years old and this song was like an anthem to her. How many people held on to these words and sang it with so much power and conviction in their voices.
It certainly was an anthem for a generation!

By Barbi on 2024 03 18

I wanted to say that this is the American spirit. How many times have I heard Paul Harvey say, "Now, for the rest of the story." It was always about how someone did something amazing, accomplished something because of love for another human being, made it through the tears and the struggles. A story of sacrifice in the American way. But how many times did I listen to those stories and know that it wasn't just an American way. The same story would apply to any father in Russia or Cambodia, or other lands who would have done the same for his child. It is the Human Spirit that cries out, "I will survive!"

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