Nile Rodgers explained how the song, which has become a gay anthem, was written
Most of us can agree that Diana Ross's musical partnership with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards was an incredibly successful one.
The Supremes icon reinvented her sound for the disco era with the help of the two songwriters, and the resultant album - 1980's 'Diana' - proved one of her biggest hits.
Its tracklist contained songs like 'Upside Down' and 'I'm Coming Out', and Nile Rodgers has shared an amusing anecdote regarding the latter - which has become a gay anthem over the ensuing decades.
Rodgers revealed that he first got the idea for the song while in the bathroom of transgender nightclub GG's Barnum Room, where he was surrounded by Diana Ross lookalikes. "“All of a sudden a lightbulb goes off in my head,” he told the NY Post. “I had to go outside and call Bernard from a telephone booth. I said, ‘Bernard, please write down the words: ‘I’m coming out.’ And then I explained the situation to him.”
He said that Ross "immediately loved the song" and identified with the idea of a person breaking free of constraints and out of their shell.
However - at least at the time - she didn't get its true meaning. "She didn’t understand that that was a gay thing, that that was a person saying, I’m coming out of the closet," Rodgers said. "She didn’t even get that."
Neverthless, it's still a great song.
Diana Ross, of course, was due to play Dublin this summer - let's hope we get to hear that song in person at some point in the near future.