Iconic American disco singer songwriter Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Am What I Am‘ was played on the latest episode of the hospital drama New Amsterdam yesterday — New Amsterdam, Season 5, Episode 8, “All The World’s a Stage“.
The song was heard playing as the girl is hallucinating from the drugs her mother gave her, and is on top of a car in the street believing she is on a pageant runway.
While the song was originally from the Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles, Gloria Gaynor released ‘I Am What I Am‘ as a single back in 1983.
The disco track became a huge club hit both in America and then in Europe.
With lyrics like these:
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace sometimes the deuces It’s my life that I want to have a little pride in My life and it’s not a place I have to hide in
the track eventually became a gay anthem.
Particularly as members of the gay community felt it helped them get through the difficulties they faced due to homophobia and ingrained self-hate.
Gaynor’s ‘I Am What I Am‘ eventually charted in nine countries, with its highest placing in the United States on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. It also hit #13 on the UK Singles chart.
Listen to Gaynor’s ‘I Am What I Am‘ as heard on New Amsterdam in the video, and on the Spotify widget below.