Listen to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Am What I Am’ from New Amsterdam, Season 5, Ep. 8

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 deckSometimes the ace sometimes the deucesIt’s my life that I want to have a little pride inMy 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.

 

 

About Steve Reynolds

Obsessed with anime and manga. Desperate for time to stop with just me left moving in the world. Then I'd have the time needed to watch the 543 anime DVDs I own, and read the more than 1,000 manga. Help!