Gloria Gaynor: ‘If you want to be healthy at 81, don’t stop using your body’

If there is an icon who represents resilience, there’s no doubt that it’s Gloria Gaynor, every bit a survivor, with expertise in rising from the ashes. The documentary I Will Survive, now showing on Prime Video, portrays the struggle of the singer, beginning in 2015, to write and record a full-length gospel album. At the 2020 Grammys, when that very album, Testimony, won Best Roots Gospel Album, Gaynor proclaimed: “I am at last able to balance out my piano.” The words were a winking reference to the Grammy she won 40 years earlier with producers Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren. That February 27, 1980 was the first and last time a Grammy was awarded for Best Disco Recording.

Gaynor is currently on tour in Europe, performing her greatest hits and songs off her recently released album Happy Tears. When she published her autobiography, also titled I Will Survive, she said that her life was far from over, an assertion she repeated during her EL PAÍS interview. Why does she think it’s important to tell her story? “I always say, I’m not smart enough to make an original mistake,” Gaynor muses. “I think that other people have gone through similar things, and I wanted them to see that it’s possible to survive and thrive after going through traumatic situations in your life.”

Question. You were living in survival mode for a long time, but right now you’re thriving, enjoying life. How did you make that switch?

Answer. Mostly my faith. I was a Christian since childhood, but during my marriage, I began to really practice and try to be the best possible person I could be, and spread love and joy and peace and happiness.

Q. Looking back, how would you describe the things you found out about yourself?

A. The strength that I have within me, and how through my faith, I had found the courage to say no. That’s very, very difficult for a lot of people, the ability to just pull up from inside your God-given strength and recognize your own self-worth. I always say, if you don’t recognize your own self-worth, no one will pay it.

Q. No one will recognize your value better than you yourself. And no one explains that better than you do on your new EP Happy Tears, would you please tell me about that title?

A. I cry every now and then because I’m happy. When you go through something that’s really heartfelt and deep-seated, if it’s a happy thing, you’ll cry. Like the birth of a child or the marriage of a friend… I’m crying now that I’ve overcome so much, I’ve come through so much, and I’m thriving. It’s a great time of my life.

Q. You’re 81 years old, but are still experiencing some things for the first time.

A. Exactly, age truly is just a number. What’s most important is your health. I’m going to tell you something that I learned from a friend of mine who is just two years younger than I am. It’s a lesson that young people need to know — if I had known it sooner, I would have done much better. I’m watching her with her grandchildren, and she’s picking stuff off the floor, and I noticed that she never bends her knees. She can put her hands palms-down on the floor without bending her knees. And she’s just two years younger than I am! Don’t stop using your body, because one day, you’ll go to do something and your body will say, “Oh no, we don’t do that anymore.”

Q. You practice CrossFit two or three times a week with your personal trainer. Where do you get the energy?

A. I’m like a spinning top: if I stop, I’ll drop. So I just love what I do. I’m one of those people who is blessed — they say if you work at what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. So, it’s not like I’m working. Music is still food for my soul. It still uplifts and encourages and empowers me. Music is my lifeblood.

Q. And your faith.

A. Faith is everything. Faith is the foundation of my music. For the last 20 years, it’s been very difficult for me to write a song that is not about God. When I sang that song with Kylie Minogue [Can’t Stop Writing Songs About You], I was thinking about God.

Q. You’re a modern-day Teresa of Ávila!

A. The man is Jesus. He is the one.

Q. Did you get to a point where you realized that as you were growing old, that suddenly you weren’t that important to the music industry?

A. Please, nobody’s important to anybody in the music industry! There’s so much narcissism in the industry, it’s ridiculous. In heaven, the devil was the head of the music department. He has musical instruments in his body, so he’s in charge of music. But God does not take back His gifts. So, the devil is still in charge of the music. If you don’t conscientiously sing your music for God, it’s his.

The devil is very much behind the scenes, feeding all kinds of foolishness to people. This narcissism makes people think, it’s all about me and I got to make mine and I got to be on top.

Q. In the documentary, you talk about the sexual abuse you suffered. What do you think about the #MeToo movement?

A. I think it’s good, because women need to be able to get rid of that. It’s a cathartic exercise when you do that, when you place the blame where it belongs and get it off yourself. Plus, these people need to be held accountable, and they need to be disabled from repeating those offenses.

Q. You’re called “the Queen of Disco” — I think you’ve been called “queen” more times than Queen Elizabeth. How do you feel having that crown? Does it make you feel pressure, or make you feel proud?

A. It makes me feel proud, because I was elected Queen of Disco in 1975 by the International Association of Discothèque Disc Jockeys. They could see that my music was the music that most brought people to the dance floor, that most caused people to be happy and exuberant and release the cares of their days. I’m very happy and very proud to be responsible for that.

Q. Speaking of Pride, your song I Will Survive is an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community. What do they mean to you?

A. They’re another part of my public. I don’t separate my public into categories. My fan base is from age eight to 80, so I don’t categorize them by age. They’re all over the world, so I don’t segregate them by nationalities. [The community is] a part of my fan base and it’s wonderful.

Q. There’s a moment in the documentary when you say that 2016 wasn’t an easy year to release an album. Is it ever?

A. Oh, it’s easy to release it. What’s difficult is getting it heard. People can’t hear what they don’t know about. So, the problem is getting it out there. That’s the difficult part, getting past what I call the gatekeepers.

Q. In the documentary, you say that you feel like your mission has not yet been accomplished. What mission do you have in life?

A. To bring hope, joy, encouragement, empowerment to people all over the world to make it through and thrive through their difficult times in their lives, and to recognize their own inner strength and mostly, to call on the love and the empowerment of God.

Q. I’d say mission accomplished, then.

A. Yes, but see, people are constantly being born. I need to get to all of them!

Q. You have two concerts in Spain this summer. How is your Spanish going?

A. [Responds in Spanish] I always say the same thing to Latinos: I can say almost anything I want in Spanish. My problem is that I don’t know a lot of people who speak Spanish. That’s why I speak much better than I understand.

Q. The song Fida Known on your latest EP talks about looking back and recognizing your mistakes. When you do that, do you see your mistakes as life lessons, or do you regret them?

A. They’re definitely life lessons. I don’t regret any of the mistakes that I made, because I think they brought me into a different area. They introduced me to different people, opened different doors for me, stopped me from going through other doors that I should not have gone through. Mistakes help you to grow. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not living.

Q. Speaking of doors you didn’t enter, did God stop you from trying cocaine?

A. Honey, when God speaks to you, you listen.

Q. You spent eight years on your gospel album. It seems like you really treasure time, and value it. What’s your relationship with it?

A. I do value time, and I constantly apologize to God for wasting it, because you can’t get it back. You need to make the best of every moment of your life. It’s a very difficult thing to do, but you need to be conscious and aware of it and make the best of every moment.

Q. How do you choose the people you work with?

A. I choose based on their talent and their character. I just want to work with people who are pleasant and accommodating and have integrity to give their best to the project. Everyone that I have worked with has been so sweet. So if the music doesn’t go anywhere, we’ve had a great time.

Q. How would you like to be remembered?

A. I really, really would like to be remembered as the person who awakened people to have faith in God. I think that’s the most important mission in my life, to help people to lay hands on eternal life, because we’re going to be dead a lot longer than we’re going to be alive.

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