2020 is almost over. And the people booking the Time Square Alliance’s “Heroes of 2020” New Year’s Eve event, which will honor essential workers, asked 77-year-old Gloria Gaynor to perform her hit ’78 break up anthem “I Will Survive”.
Gloria will also perform her 1975 song “Never Can Say Goodbye” and something off of her new gospel album. Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett will host the event. Even though everyone’s interpreting this song choice as Gloria telling 2020 to fuck off, and “you’re not welcome anymore”, I interpret things a little differently. Think about the opening lyrics:
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side
If we ignore the rest of the song, I Will Survive is clearly about a woman who’s separated from her lover because of coronavirus. Maybe he’s a frontline worker. Maybe one of them got stuck outside of the country when the borders closed. Or maybe her man can’t risk exposing his wife and kids to his side piece’s germs. Whoa. Deep. And now I’m thinking about all the affairs that had to be called off because of COVID-19. RIP.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Gloria re-purposed the song to encourage people to wash their hands for 20 seconds:
@gloriagaynor It only takes :20 seconds to “SURVIVE!”
#iWillSurviveChallenge #fyp #coronavirus #handwashing
And because you just can’t stop at a short clip of that iconic disco earworm, here’s the extremely seventies music video from back in the day:
Pic: Wenn.com