Gloria Gaynor to Newsmax: Movie Focuses on Life, Gospel Album

The disco-era anthem "I Will Survive" that won music icon Gloria Gaynor a Grammy Award appears to be a fitting title for a documentary of her life that is set to be released Feb. 13 in theaters nationwide.

Gaynor, 80, told Newsmax on Friday the documentary, titled "Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive," also provides a glimpse into a career path change that was years in the making.

"Mostly it's about the struggle that I had recording a gospel album," Gaynor told "American Agenda." "I had been wanting to do that for years and finally got the opportunity or made the opportunity to do it.

"I found it very, very difficult to find anybody, first of all, that would help me to record it or any record company that would accept the album. It's about the struggle with that and then, of course, a lot of my life and what brought me to the desire to record a gospel album."

The gospel album, "Testimony," her 20^th studio album overall, won the Grammy Award in 2020 for Best Roots Gospel Album, and the track "Talkin' 'Bout Jesus" was nominated for Best Gospel Performance/Song. But it took eight years to write and record "Testimony" and Gaynor found it tough to break out of her perception as a disco superstar.

"I absolutely was stereotyped as a disco artist," she said. "And God forbid you should try and do something different."

The documentary details Gaynor's struggles since she gained worldwide fame in the late 1970s with finances and her health, a tumultuous marriage to her manager Linwood Simon that ended in divorce in 2005, as well as her search for a new manager. "I Will Survive" has defined her existence in an unprecedented way, she said.

"It uplifted, encouraged and inspired me, as well," she said of the song. "I mean, right after the divorce, I did a show, and I did a marathon version of 'I Will Survive.' "

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