Building up the strength to get rid of a toxic person in your life can be challenging. This is especially difficult when you have to break up with someone who you know should have no more business being in your life, but you still have to muster up the courage to do so.
Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” is a perfect, uplifting song to encourage you to do that.
Gaynor wrote lyrics such as, “At first I was afraid, I was petrified, thinking I could never live without you by my side.” She is unsure and scared about her life without her lover anymore.
Further into the second verse, it says, “Aren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye? Think I’d crumble? You think I’d lay down and die?” Gaynor shows the confidence she has now gained and rhetorically asks her ex-lover if they expected her to fall apart without them.
She then admits to a slow starting process of guilt and regret by saying, “I spent oh so many nights just feeling sorry for myself, how I cried” showing how it was difficult for her to overcome the separation. However, she then follows those lyrics with, “But now I hold my head up high” proudly saying how she got over them and has more respect for herself now.
The ending verse starts with, “No, not I, I will survive. Oh, as long as I know how to love I know I’ll stay alive.” This statement is a promise to herself stating that as long as she knows how to love someone, she will have strength and confidence.
I believe that this song can have many different meanings, and can be relatable in many different ways, which is why I like listening to this song so much.
Gaynor was born in Newark, New Jersey, and recorded this song in 1978 after a spinal cord surgery. Gaynor has won two Grammys now, one of which was given to “I Will Survive.” It is currently the only disco song to have won a Grammy.
You can find “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor on Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube Music.