b. Gloria Fowles, 7 September 1949, Newark, New Jersey, USA. The ‘Queen Of The Discotheques’ spent several years struggling on the east coast circuit prior to finding success. A 1965 single, produced by Johnny Nash, preceded her spell as a member of the Soul Satisfiers. Gaynor was discovered singing in a Manhattan nightclub by her future manager, Jay Ellis. He teamed with producers Tony Bongiovia and Meco Monardo to create an unswerving disco backbeat that propelled such exemplary Gaynor performances as 1974’s ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ (US number 9/UK number 2) and ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’ (1975). Her crowning achievement followed in 1979 when ‘I Will Survive’ topped both the UK and US charts. This emotional, almost defiant performance, later adapted as a gay movement anthem, rose above the increasingly mechanical settings her producers were fashioning for the disco market. ‘I Am What I Am’, another song with militant implications, was a UK Top 20 hit in 1983, but the singer was too closely tied to a now dying form and her later career suffered as a result. She bounced back in the new millennium with the club favourites ‘Last Night’ and ‘Just Keep Thinkin’ About You’, and a brand new studio album. ‘I Will Survive’ has been re-released successfully several times, and Gaynor continues to perform her old disco classics alongside gospel material to fans around the world.
