Swedish singer-songwriter and model, Lykke Li, recently released her harrowingly somber cover of the classic disco hit “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, a song initially released as a B-side at the latter half of 1978, which quickly gained traction to hit #1 on the Billboard chart in 1979. The song is the latest musical offering from Li since the release of her fourth full-length studio album So Sad So Sexy released back in June 2018, via RCA, as previously reported on Consequence of Sound.

Li’s vocal stylings attracts a certain delicate ambiance that was evident with such singles as “Deep End” and “Hard Rain” off So Sad So Sexy. The sentiments are intensified on her latest cover of “I Will Survive” which was released this past Thursday, September 17. The lingering gentle piano notes, sound stripped back and mixed amidst what sounds as if they were recorded under the night sky, as faint sounds of crickets chirp from the outset of the track. What reverberates and hits a striking emotional chord in the song, is how hauntingly beautiful Li’s vocals permeate the sorrow and pain felt behind her voice. The passionate depth to Li’s vocal range are what gives this cover a chilling twist to the original’s anthemic liberation of getting over a bad breakup. To listen to Lykke Li’s “I Will Survive” stream below, via YouTube.

Gloria Gaynor’s upbeat female empowerment anthem “I Will Survive” is a staple of the disco sound. Even though the original’s introduction is slow and heavy, the song gets a surge of energy behind the flamboyantly glitzy production that follows soon thereafter. Gaynor’s vocals are also what drives the song, as her vocals speak to the strength of a woman who was wronged and is now confidently pressing forward, not deterred over a simple lover’s quarrel. Similarly, both versions speak to the strength behind the respective’s singers passionate vocal delivery.  To listen to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”, stream below via YouTube.

As of late, Li’s 2018 song “Sex Money Feelings Die” received a sort of resurgence as it breathed new life on the popular social media app, TikTok, last year. As previously reported, here on mxdwn, “Tik Tok has developed a role in taking underappreciated songs and giving them a second chance to be hits. Lykke Li’s, ‘Sex Money Feelings Die,’ is a perfect example of this. It was a great song on her equally impressive album, so sad, so sexy, but was never pushed as the main single for the project. But since so sad, so sexy’s release, her ‘Sex Money Feelings Die’ has been used in 19.8 thousand Tik Tok videos.”

Photo credit: Alyssa Fried