Martina McBride‘s “Independence Day” not only changed the trajectory of one artist’s career in 1994, but it also shed light on important issues. Issues that really weren’t widely discussed at the time. Gretchen Peters wrote the Grammy-nominated song in about a year and a half. She told The Tennessean that after the song’s release, its impact would leave her with an “indescribable” feeling.
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For those who don’t know, “Independence Day” talks about domestic violence, from a daughter’s perspective. The title is slightly misleading, though. Many people, including me, have primarily associated the song with the American holiday over the years. The song does mention the 4th of July. However, it also reveals that the real “Independence Day” is the day that “the guilty pay.”
Peters explained to The Tennessean why it took her so long to finish the song. “Basically, I had the story,” she shared. “I had written the chorus first and sort of pieced the story around it based on what the chorus was making me feel. I got to that third verse and I just kept saying, ‘I’ve got to resolve it some other way. This is too dark.’ I mean, the woman finds her independence in the hardest possible way.”
Ultimately, the dark ending would stay, and Martina McBride would be the voice that took “Independence Day” to great heights. It seems like those 18 months paid off too, as the song went on to win Song of the Year.
The Impact of “Independence Day”
Although “Independence Day” is not Gretchen Peters’ own story, the songwriter shared with The Boot that she felt like she could relate to the mother and daughter while writing it. It took her a minute to fully piece the song together because she was desperate to find a happy ending.
“At the end, I realized that it was kind of ironic that I was going through the same process that the mother in the song was going through, of trying to find a way out that didn’t involve death and destruction,” she explained.
Martina McBride also told Rolling Stone about the impact the song had after it came out. While McBride couldn’t personally relate to “Independence Day”, her song would become a vessel for other women to share their stories. She and Peters would receive letters from countless women, thanking them for inspiring them to leave abusive situations.
“I started getting all these letters — handwritten letters back in the day — from women saying, ‘This is my song.’” McBride told the magazine, “I got a few letters that said, ‘I heard this song on the radio, I’ve been battered for 10 years, and I left.’”
By hearing “Independence Day”, it seemed that more than one woman found the strength to set herself free.
Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
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