Gloria Gaynor won a Grammy for the mega-hit song “I Will Survive” in 1980. And that’s the only Grammy. Fast-forward 40 years later, she has been nominated for two Grammy awards for her “Testimony” gospel album. One nomination is for the album, the other is for a song on the album, “Talkin’ Bout Jesus.”
Verse two of the song even offers a quick play-on-words linked to “I Will Survive”:
“Stop, can't do it alone
And if you think that your life is hopeless, you're plain dead wrong
'Cause I know somebody who came to save your life
And without his hand leading every step of the way, you won't survive” – partial lyrics, “Talkin’ Bout Jesus”
The Chicago Sun Times reports Gaynor ‘sees the hand of God in every aspect of her life.’ And when asked why she wanted to record a gospel album, she told the AP, “I just wanted to share the love and the knowledge of Christ through my music. I felt that that was what I was called to do.”
When asked if she thought about doing any more dance music, Gaynor’s answer was perhaps unexpected: “Well, the only dance music I’m planning on doing is music that to which you can dance it like David danced, dance unto the Lord.”
In an interview with NPR, the now 70-year-old singer was talking about “Amazing Grace,” a song on her new album. The interviewer asked about a comment Gaynor made in a previous interview, “You said that the Holy Spirit grabbed you by the collar in 1985. What do you mean by that?” Gaynor simply replied, “I mean exactly what I said.” When asked to elaborate, Gaynor explained she was at a rather wild party and literally felt a hand grab her collar. A voice (God) said, “That’s enough!” – and the voice she believes was from God was pretty forceful.
She got God’s message and “never looked back.”
There were some health issues over the years, as Forbes reports, “I had five injuries on my spine and one of them left me walking, bent over for 20 years. Then my manager, Stephanie Gold, did a lot of research and finally found this wonderful doctor who, between his natural skill and my praying that God would use his hands as his own, corrected all that was done wrong before. And now I’m free of pain and doing great.”