Now I sing 'I will survive' to help others

GLORIA GAYNOR'S eyes light up as she tells me about headlining Brazil's Rock In Rio music festival last September. “It was wonderful,” she enthuses. “That huge audience, more than 150,000 people, singing along with me...

- 

Just months before she'd topped the bill at Bal de la Rose in Monte Carlo, for Prince Albert's charity foundation.

And Gloria performs in England in August as part of a seven-date world tour. “I haven't just survived, I've thrived,” she says.

There are no mirror balls in her beautiful New Jersey home, and no sign of the detritus of extravagant parties. But at 81, Gloria continues to embody the enduring essence of New York disco culture just as surely as her 1978 anthem I Will Survive supplied its theme tune.

Life as a rollercoaster is an overused metaphor, but nothing else does justice to Gaynor's backstory. The highs have been abundant and exhilarating - the lows soul-sapping and shocking. As well as career-threatening injuries, the double-Grammy winning star has endured sexual assault, her sister's murder, divorce, and a legal battle over royalties.

But perhaps the most startling moment came in 1985 when, surrounded by drink and drugs, Gloria says “the Holy Spirit grabbed me by the collar”.

Physically grabbed? I ask.

“Absolutely, physically. A real thing, an awesome thing.”

She raced to the bathroom, shaking.

“Then I realised - I was having an epiphany. God was telling me, ‘Gloria, that’s enough.”

It has been 50 years since Gaynor was crowned “Queen of the Discotheques” in Manhattan, following the success of her first hit Never Can Say Goodbye - a No.2 hit here.

Grammy-winning chart-topper I Will Survive came three years later and lives on in film and TV soundtracks and karaoke bars the world over.

Penned by former Motown songwriters Perren and Fekaris, it combined a message of self-discovery and empowerment with a driving beat and Gaynor's glorious heartfelt vocals.

In her words, “It celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit and makes you feel ‘I can do this’.

Her third biggest hit was 1983's I Am What I Am - a global gay anthem.