Laura Branigan passed away six years ago today at the age of 47. Her biggest hit in the US was a cover of Umberto Tozzi's Gloria, but in Europe a cover of Raf's Self control. She further recorded Tozzi's Ti amo, and even participated in Sanremo 1991 with Fiordaliso doing Il mare piú grande che c'é/Don't walk away. Her recording career started in 1979 but the first album came out only in 1982 and the Grammy nominations started right on with Gloria. She also scored the first hit for writers Diane Warren with Solitaire and Michael Bolton with How am I supposed to live without you. The Lucky one followed winning the Tokyo Music Festival and she also scored a hit with Carole King cover Will you still love me tomorrow, a nice change from her uptempo songs. She also did I found someone, later a comeback hit for Cher, on the other hand she covered Jennifer Rush's The power of love and made it a hit again. And she recorded Celine Dion's Unison before it became title track for Dion's first English language album.Other songs worth mention are Spanish Eddie and Moonlight on water. And the ABBA cover Winner takes it all and Alphaville cover Forever young. She surely imported some European music to the States!
In 1996 her husband died of cancer and she spent the 3 years before that outsside the music business to stay with him. Various greatest hits compilations were released in those years and one in 1995 includes cover of Maria McGee's Show me heaven and Donna Summer's Dim all the lights. Her return to spotlight was cancelled when she had to cancel her tour in 2001 as she broke both of her femurs. She died in 2004 of previsouly undiagnosed brain aneurysm when she was ready for a comeback again.
She was a great artist with an unique voice that in my opinion never got as big as she deserved to. The endless remixes on Youtube prove her music lives on....
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