Laura Branigan is perhaps one of the most powerful and emotive singers in the business; her impressive four octave vocal range and style is surely the match of any of today’s pop “diva’s”. Equally at home recording self-penned songs or breathing new life into other artists work, Laura strides the boundaries of pop and rock and has an impressive string of international hit singles and albums as proof. Only bad timing has held back Laura’s career; who, in the early 1980’s would have put have put money on the likes of Tina Turner and Cher successfully re-launching their recording careers. That’s not to say that she does not deserve to be as big as they are. Laura was born in Brewster, New York on 3rd July 1957. It wasn’t until a leading role in a high school show that a performance career lay ahead. After high school, Laura spent some time at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts and from there, working and touring as backing singer for Leonard Cohen where she first gained notice in the late 1970’s and decided that “singing was it for me”. This was the springboard for her successful solo career. In Europe, Umberto Tozzi had a sizeable hit with a song called Gloria, but Laura Branigan recorded her own version in 1982 storming the American and British charts with it. It also won her a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, the first of several Grammy nominations that were to follow. The debut album, on Atlantic Records, Branigan, also released in 1982 soon achieved gold status and showcased her powerful style. Gloria was not just a flash-in-the-pan, as 1983 saw the release of her second album, Branigan 2 which gave rise to two American top ten hits that year, Solitaire, again a European minor hit but re-worked by Diane Warren, (one of her first hits and first of many successful collaborations with Laura) and How Am I Supposed To Live Without You; the latter written by Michael Bolton who went on to pen hits for himself and Cher, also having a big hit himself in the UK some years later with the same song.

In 1984 Self Control, from the album of the same name again stormed the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and was again a cover of a minor European hit (this time by Raffaele Riefoli). So successful was Laura’s version that in West Germany (of the time) she beat Raffaele to the number 1 spot. Self Control was notable in the UK in that the BBC banned the full length video by director William Fredkin (or cut it to shreads). Ti Amo , (another cover of Umberto Tozzi and re-worked by Diane Warren) and The Lucky One were successful follow-up singles that helped the Self Control album to reach Platinum sales. Continuing the hits, 1985 saw the release of the Hold Me album and three more chart hits: Spanish Eddie, Hold Me, and I Found Someone. The latter being a hugely successful comeback single two years later for Cher. More chart success followed in 1987 with the release of the Touch  album. For the Shattered Glass single, Laura utilised the services of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, who at the time were dominating the British charts with releases on their PWL label and were looking to gain a foothold on the American charts. Good as Laura’s vocal performance was. the chemistry wasn’t right. The next single though catapulted Laura back into the higher reaches of the chart with an awesome cover of Jennifer Rush’s The Power Of Love, the original already being a massive number 1 hit in the UK.

Increasingly throughout the 1980’s, because of her high chart profile, Laura was asked to contribute to film soundtracks, some of which were major box office hits such as Flashdance, Ghostbusters and Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America. Film and television offers also came in. Mugsy’s Girls in 1985 starring Ruth Gorden and TV appearances in shows like ChiPs and Automan as well taking several months away from recording in 1988 to  film Backstage in Australia. All this is in addition to numerous performances on American Bandstand and the very popular Johnny Carson Tonight Show. 1990 ushered in the new decade with the self-titled Laura Branigan  album and had a minor hit with Moonlight On Water. In 1993 the Over My Heart album followed which has been the last full album of new material released to date. A  duet was recorded in 1994 with David Hasselhoff for the soundtrack to the successful TV series Baywatch. Finally, in 1995 a Greatest Hits collection was released and in a review by Q Magazine, Laura Branigan was described as having “...a hugely appealing belter of a voice...with distinctly epic and sometimes even moving qualities.” This collection featured two new songs: Dim All The Lights, a cover of Donna Summer’s 1979 gold smash and Show Me Heaven, again a cover, this time of Maria McKee’s contribution to the Days Of Thunder soundtrack. Dim All The Lights was a labour of love as Laura is a long-time fan of Donna Summer’s work and Show Me Heaven she has described as “the best thing I have ever done”. Even though on the recording front, things have been quiet over the past five years following the tragic loss of her husband and her brother. Laura has continued to tour and perform live; whether it’s a three week tour in South Africa, appearances on Chinese State TV or concert performances for special events such as the Special Olympics or pride marches, in front of several thousand or a couple of hundred Laura is an incredible performer on stage. “Singing in the studio, you’re very isolated. But when you’re on stage, the audience becomes your other half. It’s an incredible feeling.” A 1984 video from Tahoe and a 1990 recorded performance (on laser disc) from Atlantic City highlight her live shows. Finally, after a lengthy hiatus in recorded material, in 1999 stirrings came via South Africa of an exclusive hits album release, rumours that she was recording the theme song for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and talk of a new studio album around October. First to be issued was the South African only Back In Control-Greatest Hits CD with five new remixes of classic tracks and two exclusive CD singles featuring several alternate remixes of Gloria and Self Control. As if to signal a major comeback, in a tongue-in-cheek way, much of the vocal track to the ‘new’ Gloria was mixed through a vocoder, bringing to mind Cher’s big hit Believe. A nod to Cher’s bigger hit with I Found Someone, perhaps, but definitely a signal that she is coming back. Laura Branigan has been compared to the likes of Cher, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey and while she may not have enjoyed the mega superstardom they have, record sales exceeding 10 million prove she is no ‘also-ran’. One positive thing Laura has though is a very loyal and supportive fan base, which is growing. This can be accessed through several Internet sites where there is lively discussion and swapping of news and information, as well as people who will help others to get hold of elusive tracks and albums.