Laura Branigan's Real Name: Laura Branigan

Quick answer: She performed under her own name, Laura Branigan. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives her birth date as July 3, 1952, and records her death on August 26, 2004, in East Quogue, New York. AllMusic independently dates her birth to 1952 and her death to August 26, 2004. A longer form, Laura Ann Branigan, appears in a Library of Congress record but not in the two main sources.

Real name and early life

Britannica says she was born on July 3, 1952, in the New York metropolitan area. AllMusic's biography, by Thom Jurek, gives the year 1952 and names the birthplace as the upstate New York town of Brewster. The Library of Congress name file contains the fuller form Laura Ann Branigan, while a second note in the same file instead gives a 1957 birth year from an obituary.

AllMusic says she first considered a music career after landing the lead in her high school musical, later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and toured the world as a backing vocalist for Leonard Cohen in the late 1970s. It says that work led to a recording contract with Atlantic.

Career highlights

Both sources point to "Gloria" (1982) as her signature hit and agree that it reached number two on the U.S. chart. AllMusic says it was a remake of an Italian pop song, reached number six in the U.K., topped the chart in Germany, and earned the first of her Grammy nominations for best female pop vocal performance.

Britannica lists later hits "Solitaire," "Self Control," and "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You." AllMusic dates the first two singles' album, Branigan 2, to 1983 and says Michael Bolton co-wrote "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You." It dates the album Self Control to 1984, followed by Hold Me (1985) and Touch (1987), with singles including "Ti Amo," "Spanish Eddie," and "The Power of Love." It also says two of her songs appeared on the soundtracks of Flashdance and Ghostbusters.

AllMusic says she stepped back from music after her husband, Larry Kruteck, was diagnosed with cancer in 1994, and cared for him until his death in 1996. Both sources say she returned to the stage in 2002 in Love, Janis, a musical about Janis Joplin.

Death

Britannica records her death on August 26, 2004, in East Quogue, New York. AllMusic gives the same date and says she died in her sleep from a brain aneurysm.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Laura Branigan or Laura Ann Branigan are looking for the same singer. Kruteck was her husband's surname.