I Will Survive

Writers - Fekaris/Perren
Unreleased (except on video) (1994)

So often have Neil and Chris performed Gloria Gaynor's 1978-79 disco classic as part of a live medley with "It's a Sin" (at least as far back as the 1994 DiscoVery concerts) that it has come to be rather expected. The implications of this particular medley is unavoidable: the Pet Shop Boys consider the struggle with sin—or, perhaps more accurately, with the concept of sin and its effects on one's psyche—to be a matter of survival. They assert in no uncertain terms that they will indeed overcome and survive.

The fact that they often perform it with heavy-handed religious overtones (the female singer wearing a nun's habit, a stained-glass window background projection, and/or sampled pipe organ chords worthy of St. Peter's Basilica) leaves little doubt that their problems with "sin" are actually with "the church"—that is, traditional organized religion.

Although the Boys have never released their rendition of "I Will Survive" on DVD, you can indeed see and hear them perform it on their DiscoVery VHS and Somewhere VHS/DVD.

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