Actors - Laura Branigan

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	Actors - Laura Branigan

Laura Branigan (July 3, 1957 – August 26, 2004) was a popular American singer/actress from Brewster, New York, best known in the U.S. for the song "Gloria" (1982). She received the first of four Grammy Award nominations for the song. Branigan introduced the ballad "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" (1983), making the song a standard, recorded by dozens of artists throughout the world in the years since. "Self Control" (1984) was her biggest-selling album, and the title track became an international Number One hit. Her other hits included "Solitaire," "The Lucky One" and "The Power of Love." She was of Irish and Italian ancestry.

Biography

Branigan studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and worked as a waitress while in school. She eventually got a job singing back-up vocals for Leonard Cohen, touring throughout Europe. In 1979 she was signed by Ahmet Ertegun to Atlantic Records, but the label was at first unsure how to categorize Branigan, given the singer's strong dramatic voice with a four octave range.

She eventually recorded Branigan, the album containing "Gloria"; "Gloria" (originally recorded in Italian by Umberto Tozzi in 1979, and originally a hit only in Tozzi's native Italy) eventually became an international hit. American radio was not initially receptive to "Gloria"; the song's combination of American and European sound predated the imminent second "British Invasion" of popular music by several months. Embraced by dance clubs, especially gay clubs, it eventually won over American radio stations and propelled the song to become one of the biggest hits of the decade. The album went gold, as well as the single, and then platinum. Her vocal performance of "Gloria" was nominated for a Grammy award, her first of four nominations.

In spring of 1983, Branigan released her second album, Branigan 2. By this time, the dramatic European synth-pop sound was on the rise, and appropriately, the singer's stirring vocal performance of the English version of the French song "Solitaire" drove that single to the upper reaches of the charts. In addition to cementing a place in pop history and ensuring she was not a one-hit wonder, her sophomore album's two big hits began the careers for two then-unknowns, who themselves became industry legends: The English translation of "Solitaire" was the first major hit for lyric writer Diane Warren, while the album's second hit single, the ballad "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?", was the first major hit for its cowriter, Michael Bolton. "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?" just missed the Top Ten on the Pop charts but spent three weeks at Number One on the Adult Contemporary airplay charts.

The year 1984 was the height of the European synth-pop era, but the striking production and sensuous, half-whispered vocals of "Self Control," the title track off Branigan's third album, took the world by storm. The song became her biggest international hit, topping the charts in several countries and was an anthem on radio and dancefloors across the world, most notably West Germany, where it spent 7 weeks at number one. Other pop, dancefloor and adult contemporary hits off the album include the melodic electropop of "The Lucky One" (which won her a Tokyo Music Festival prize), the continental ballad "Ti Amo" and the club hit "Satisfaction." That year, her live show was recorded twice: once for a syndicated radio concert series, and a second time for a concert video.

By the time of Branigan's fourth album, 1985's Hold Me, "Self Control" had swept the world and territories that had not previously embraced her began to release her earlier material, from South America to the Middle East to the Pacific Islands. Lead single "Spanish Eddie" was her sixth top 40 hit in two and a half years, but failed to enter the top 20. Subsequent release "Hold Me" was a top 40 dance hit and her introduction of the rock ballad "I Found Someone" (cowritten by Michael Bolton) scored even higher on the AC chart, but neither song was supported by a music video and stalled in the lower reaches of the pop charts.

Nineteen eighty-seven's Touch marked a change in Branigan's career. Under new management and using different producers, Branigan took a more active role in her work and in the studio. The Touch album also saw her return to dancefloors with the Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced "Shattered Glass," one of her best Hi-NRG performances. The album also included a return to the top 40 with her cover of Jennifer Rush's "The Power Of Love," which closed out the year as one of the top 20 bestselling singles of the Christmas season. The album's third single, "Cry Wolf," was considered the album's most organic production, and while it did not capture attention at pop radio, it was a top 30 AC hit.

Laura Branigan's 1990 self-titled album brought the singer back to the tops of the Hi-NRG charts and gay dancefloors with "Moonlight on Water" and scored another top 30 AC hit with "Never in a Million Years." Continuing her more active role in studio production, Branigan added producing to her list of credits with her cover of Vicki Sue Robinson's disco-era "Turn the Beat Around."

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Actors - Laura Branigan

Biography

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