Laura Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for bringing the sounds of Italo Disco across the pond to American audiences.
Her signature song, the 1982 single "Gloria", written by Italian singer-songwriters Giancarlo Bigazzi and Umberto Tozzi, was certified platinum and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks in the U.S., then a record for a female artist, with its highest ranking being at No. 2, and also reached number one in Australia and Canada; and in 1984, she reached number one in Canada and Germany with the U.S. No. 4 hit "Self Control", which was released by Italian singer and songwriter Raf the same year. Branigan's version of "Self Control" was featured on an episode of Miami Vice was used as a track on the fictional radio station Flash FM in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Her chart success began to wane as the decade closed, and after her two studio albums released in the decade, Laura Branigan (1990) and Over My Heart (1993) garnered little attention, she generally retired from public life for the rest of the 1990s. She returned to performing in the early 2000s, but as she was recording new music and preparing a comeback to the music industry, she died at her home in August 2004 from a previously undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm.
Branigan's work provides examples of:
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The narrator of "Self Control".
- Italo Disco: Branigan was responsible for many crossover hits of the genre.
- Masquerade Ball: The setting of the third scene in the "Self Control" video.
- Music at Sporting Events: On January 1, 2019, the St. Louis Blues had the worst record in the NHL. A few days later, several Blues players heard "Gloria" in a Philadelphia bar, and decided that it should be the team's victory song. The Blues went on a tear, with "Gloria" being played after every home win; they made the playoffs and went on to win the Stanley Cup. The team retired the song after that season, breaking it out only when their Cup banner was raised at the 2019–20 home opener.
