Laura Branigan was a Grammy-nominated pop singer/songwriter and actress. Her cinematic, synth-driven, club-friendly dance pop and groundbreaking music videos sent her singles and albums to the top rungs of the charts and made her a huge concert attraction. From her clear-throated, fist-pumping post-disco singles like “Gloria” to the sultry, Roland 808 vamps and drum machine loops in “Self Control” and beyond, Branigan was a singles artist whose career arc coincided with the rise of the MTV era. Her chart successes mirrored those of other ’80s female icons such as Sade, Kim Wilde, and Kim Carnes. Her place in pop culture was so prevalent, two of her songs were selected for the soundtracks of a pair of the decade’s most iconic films, Flashdance and Ghostbusters. Branigan placed five singles in the upper reaches of the Hot 100, six albums in the Top 200, and two-dozen songs split between the dance music and adult contemporary charts. She continued to work in theater and film, and to record with other artists, until her death due to a brain aneurysm in 2004.
Branigan was born in 1952 in the upstate New York town of Brewster. It wasn’t until her senior year in high school that she considered pursuing a musical career after landing the lead role in a school musical. By the mid-’70s, Branigan had been accepted at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and in the latter part of the decade she auditioned to be a backing vocalist for Leonard Cohen. She won an audition and spent the remainder of the decade touring the world with him. As a result, she landed a recording contract with Atlantic. Work on her solo debut was held up by a breach of contract lawsuit that resulted from her changing her management. All issues were eventually sorted out by 1981 and Branigan launched her solo singing career with her debut, Branigan, in 1982.