Laura Branigan

Laura Branigan ( July 3, 1957-August 26, 2004 in East Quogue, New York) was a popular American singer/actress from Westchester County, New York, best known in the U.S. for the song "Gloria" (1982). She received the first of her 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.

Controversy

In the early 1970's, Branigan was briefly a lead singer in a band named "Meadow," cowriting and singing a few songs on the band's album The Friend Ship (released 1973). This was before Branigan toured with Leonard Cohen and by the 1980's, she refused to acknowledge that she ever had any connection with the band Meadow or the 1973 album.

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In the spring of 1984, academy award-winning film director William Friedkin (French Connection, The Exorcist) became one of the first major directors to shoot a music video, Branigan's "Self Control." Tame not only by today's standards but even by those of a few months later, MTV nevertheless refused to air the clip, despite the song's massive, multiformat popularity (top 5 pop, dance, and adult contemporary), demanding it be re-edited. Branigan stood up against this censorship and for the artistic vision she and auteur Billy Friedkin had conceived, taking to the media to press her case. MTV kept their ban in place all summer long until the song had peaked and fallen from the top 10. While Branigan's record company recut the video against her better judgement, MTV only aired the version they had requested a handful of times before dropping it from their playlist. That Christmas on the channel, Madonna was writhing on the floor in a bustier, wedding dress over her head, and being ravaged by lion-headed men in the canals of Venice in "Like A Virgin," and Duran Duran's loinclothed "Wild Boys" were ravaging each other. MTV never apologized, never ceased lowering its threshold of decency, and never promoted a video of Laura Branigan's again. Mirroring the song's lyrics, the video follows Laura as she prepares for a night out, then walks along stylized city streets, followed by a mysterious man in a white mask. Entering through a door, she is led down a flight of stairs and into a club where an odd cast of characters are caught in something between a dance and an orgy, though all remain fully clothed. Laura, drawn into the crowd for a moment, flees from--or chases--her desires down a hallway filled with doors and ultimately into a room where the masked man pulls her to him. At the end of the song, Laura wakes up in bed next to the man, still masked; as the sun streams through the window, he vanishes.

Related Topics:
William Friedkin - French Connection - The Exorcist - Madonna - Duran Duran

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By the late 1990's, a website was made using the name Laura Branigan. However, after several years it was apparent to many Branigan fans (some of whom call themselves "Branifans" or "Fanigans") that this website had no connection to the singer herself. Another website was created in 2002 and by 2004, Laura Branigan designated this latter website http://laurabraniganonline.com/indexfs.htm as her official website. Despite Branigan's passing in August 2004, both websites continue to exist, with only the one being her personally approved and endorsed official website.

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