Gloria Gaynor Just Won TikTok With Hilarious Video Promoting Hand Washing While Singing Her Hit, ‘I Will Survive’

Finally, something to laugh about in a week dominated by coronavirus concerns

Gloria Gaynor accepts the Best Roots Gospel Album award for "Testimony" onstage during the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

by Esther Newman |
Updated on

In times like this, finding something that makes you laugh perhaps feels more important than ever. With the coronavirus outbreak and ensuing travel bans, self-isolation and people stockpiling toilet paper, a joke or two can go a long way to alleviate some of the anxiety and tension swirling around.

As such, TikTok has emerged the most popular social media app of choice, as teens across the world popularise hashtags like #handwashingmove, joke about facetiming their teachers whilst in lockdown, and even share humorous videos of themselves getting tested for the virus (yes, really).

Now though it isn’t just teens getting in on the action - Gloria Gaynor has offered her own hand washing video, using TikTok to demonstrate that her 1978 hit ‘I Will Survive’ is the perfect fit for the 20-second hand washing guideline advised by health professionals.

‘It only takes 20 seconds to “SURVIVE!’, she captioned the video, adding the hashtag #iwillsurvivechallenge.

Unsurprisingly, the video soon went viral; ‘Gloria Gaynor washing her hands to ‘I Will Survive’ is the hand-washing video I didn’t know I needed,’ one person tweeted, their post currently enjoying 114.4k retweets and 360k likes.

‘Actual @gloriagaynor washing her hands to ‘I Will Survive’ - is the greatest gift from the internet this week!,’ TV and radio presenter Stephanie Hirst added.

‘Gloria Gaynor has now done more for the health and welfare of the United States than the president,’ another joked.

Currently, the #iwillsurvivechallenge hashtag has 1.7m views on TikTok as others inspired by the singer take to their bathrooms to belt the ‘70s hit. It may be an ironic joke, but if anything is going to get people washing their hands - and make us smile right now - then we are all for it.

READ MORE:

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