Her chart success began to wane as the decade closed and after her last two studio albums Laura Branigan (1990) and Over My Heart (1993) garnered little attention, she generally retired from public life for the rest of the 1990s.

[5] Branigan and her music saw renewed popularity and public interest in 2019 in the U.S. after "Gloria" was adopted by the NHL's St. Louis Blues as their unofficial victory song while they completed a historic mid-season turnaround to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, leading to the song entering ice hockey lore as an "unlikely championship anthem".

During the years after Meadow broke up, Branigan had various jobs, including a stint as one of Leonard Cohen's backup singers for his European tour in April–August 1976.

[19] Branigan met attorney Larry Ross Kruteck (1936–1996) on St. Patrick's Day March 17, 1978, at a party in Manhattan and got married after almost nine months of dating December 8, 1978.

[20] In 1979, after a chance meeting with manager Sid Bernstein on her return from Europe, Branigan was signed by Ahmet Ertegun to Atlantic Records.

"Gloria", an Italian love song recorded in 1979 by Umberto Tozzi and successful in several European countries, was released as the album's second single.

During the height of her career, Branigan also made acting appearances, first in 1981 in An American Girl in Berlin for West German television, and then after the success of "Gloria", guest appearances on American television series such as CHiPs ("Fox Trap", season 6, episode 16, in which she played Sarah, lead singer of the female rock band Cadillac Foxes),[22] Automan ("Murder MTV", season 1, episode 9) and Knight Rider.

She sang on major national television and radio campaigns for products including Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and Chrysler, which sponsored her 1985–1986 "Hold Me" tour.

The year 1984, while she was working with German producer Jack White,[23][24] was the height of the European synthpop era, and "Self Control", the title track of Branigan's third album, released in April 1984 became her biggest hit internationally, topping the charts in over six countries, most notably West Germany, where it spent six weeks at No.

The song was featured on the eighth episode of the first season of the TV series, Miami Vice, entitled "The Great McCarthy", which aired on November 16, 1984.

Branigan's vocal coach was Carlo Menotti, and she worked with Steve Lukather (Toto), Dann Huff (Giant) and Michael Landau; keyboardists Greg Mathieson, Harold Faltermeyer, Michael Boddicker and Robbie Buchanan; bassists Nathan East and Dennis Belfield (Rufus); drummers Carlos Vega and Doane Perry (Jethro Tull); percussionists Paulinho Da Costa and Lenny Castro; and guest vocalists including Joe "Bean" Esposito and background vocalists including The Waters Sisters (Maxine and Julia), James Ingram, and Richard Page and Stephen George (Mr. Mister).

As her stature grew, she attracted Grammy-winning producers including Phil Ramone, Richard Perry and David Kershenbaum.

On June 13, 1985, Branigan made her fourth appearance on legendary TV music show American Bandstand, performing "Spanish Eddie" and "Hold Me".

Under new management and using different producers, Branigan took a more active role in her work and in the studio, seeing her return to dancefloors with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman-produced track "Shattered Glass", written by Bob Mitchell and Steve Coe, of the band Monsoon.

[18] The album also included a return to the Billboard top-40 with her cover of Jennifer Rush's "Power of Love", which was one of the 20 bestselling singles in the U.S. during the Christmas season.

The album's third single, "Cry Wolf", a top-30 AC hit, did not capture the attention of pop radio stations and stalled; the ballad was recorded two years later by Stevie Nicks, and more recently by its writer Jude Johnstone.

[29][non-primary source needed] On Branigan's seventh and final studio album Over My Heart (August 17, 1993), the singer again produced (with Phil Ramone), and wrote and arranged.

Branigan recorded a duet with David Hasselhoff which was hugely successful for being broadcast as the closing track of the Baywatch TV series.

Besides her duties as a jury member of this international musical competition, Branigan performed on February 16 on the main stage for an audience who enthusiastically sang her greatest hits.

In early 2001, Branigan's return to the stage was postponed, when she broke both of her femurs in a 10-foot fall from a ladder while she was hanging wisteria outside her three-bedroom lakeside home in Westchester County, New York, resulting in physical therapy for six months.

"I left Janis because the producers failed to file with Equity properly," she told the Sunday News in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

[34][35] At the time of her death, it was widely and erroneously reported that she was 47 years old, resulting from a technical error the Associated Press published after contacting Branigan's management company.

[37] At Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York, the Laura Branigan Memorial Scholarship is given annually to a senior for excellence in the performing arts.

[13] The St. Louis Blues NHL team began using Branigan's version of "Gloria" as its unofficial victory song when they went on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak during the 2018–19 season.

The bands Phish and Vampire Weekend, who were both holding concerts in St. Louis on the night of Game 7, performed covers of "Gloria" when they learned the Blues had won the Cup.

When fans of the Boston Bruins, the Blues' opponent in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, started re-purposing the "Play Gloria" meme it earned a rebuke from Branigan's Twitter page which went viral.

[7] When asked how she thought Branigan would have reacted to the "Play Gloria" meme had she lived to see it, Golik said, "She was very sincere, very down to Earth, she would just have been very touched by it all.

To see them win and to hear that song blaring and coming up in the arena and looking around and seeing people singing out as loud as they can, cheering and having a good time, it's indescribable what that's like.

"[6] In addition, Branigan's boyfriend at the time of her passing Tommy Bayiokos, who also was in her band, said "Laura would have gladly satisfied fans' desire to hear it live.

The "Play Gloria" wave started at the Jacks NYB bar and was totally unscripted ... it's been bittersweet and a testament of Laura's musical prowess.