I'm Coming Out

Album

Diana

Label

Motown

Genre

Funk

Composer(s)

Bernard Edwards;Nile Rodgers

Entered Chart

Sep 6, 1980

Peak Date

Nov 15, 1980

Released

August 22, 1980

Recorded

December 1979 Studio Power Station, New York City

Catalog #

Motown 1491

B-Side

Friend To Friend

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote this song and produced it. They were the leaders of the '70s disco band Chic, and brought that disco sound to Ross for this album. Rodgers got the idea for "I'm Coming Out" when he went to a gay club in New York City. He went to the bathroom, and while he was standing at the urinal, he saw three men who looked like Diana Ross. "Coming Out" means coming out of the closet and being openly gay. Nile Rodgers recalled to the Mail on Sunday's Event magazine in 2013 that a DJ warned Diana Ross that this song was going to ruin her career because people would think she was gay. "It was the only time I've ever lied to an artist," he recalled. "I said: 'What are you talking about? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life!' We had written it because of her gay following, but I said she should use it as her 'coming-out' song – to start her gigs – and she has ever since." Diana Ross performed this song in front of President Bill Clinton and various world leaders at the opening ceremony of the 1994 World Cup held at Soldier Field in Chicago. It didn't go as planned: Ross was set up with a short penalty kick, which was set to split open the goal for her to run through while she sang this song. She missed the kick. In 1997, Puff Daddy sampled this on the track "Mo Money Mo Problems," which became a #1 hit in the US. R&B songstress Keyshia Cole and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea teamed up to cover the song for the soundtrack of the 2014 Cameron Diaz movie, The Other Woman.

I'm coming out
I'm coming
I'm coming out
I'm coming out

I'm coming out
I'm coming out

I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show

There's a new me coming out
And I just have to live
And I want to give
I'm completely positive
I think this time around
I am gonna do it
Like you never knew it
Oh, I'll make it through

The time has come for me
To break out of the shell
I have to shout
That I am coming out

I'm coming out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show
I'm coming out (coming)
I want the world to know (out)
Got to let it show (I'm coming
I'm coming out (coming)
I want the world to know (out)
Got to let it show

I've got to show the world
All that I want to be
And all my abilities
There's so much more to me
Somehow, I'll have to make them
Just understand
I got it well in hand
And, oh, how I've planned
I'm spreadin' love
There is no need to fear
And I just feel so good
Every time I hear

I'm coming out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show
I'm coming out (coming)
I want the world to know (out)
Got to let it show (I'm coming)
I'm coming out (coming)
I want the world to know (out)
Got to let it show
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show

I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show (want the world to know)
(I got to let it show)
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show

I'm coming out (I'm coming)
I want the world to know (out)
Got to let it show
(I want the world to know, gotta let it show)
I'm coming out (I'm, I'm, I'm)
I want the world to know (I'm coming out)
Got to let it show (watch out, I'm coming out)
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show
I'm coming out (coming, coming out)
I want the world to know
Got to let it show (want the world to know)
(Got to let it show)

I'm, I'm coming out
I have to shout that I'm comin' out
I want the world to know, I gotta let it show
I'm coming, I'm coming out