Debra Laws

Debra Renee Laws, born September 10, 1956, in Houston, Texas, is an American singer, actress, and songwriter who appeared on Broadway in 1999 in It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues. The seventh of eight children born to Hubert Laws, Sr. and Miola Luverta Donahue, Laws built a career spanning recording, live performance, theater, and film. Her siblings Eloise Laws, Hubert Laws, and Ronnie Laws are producers with whom she has collaborated closely throughout her professional life.

Laws entered the music industry in 1977 when she was featured on her brother Ronnie's album Friends and Strangers, released on United Artists Records. Two years later, she served as a lead vocalist on her brother Hubert's Columbia Records album Land of Passion. Her debut as a solo recording artist came in 1981 with the Elektra Records album Very Special, produced by her two brothers. The album sold more than 385,000 copies, and its two singles, "Very Special" and "Be Yourself," combined for sales exceeding 260,000 copies. A third single from the album, "Meant for You," was written by Roxanne Seeman and David Lasley and appeared on the soundtrack of the Paramount film Fighting Back, which starred Tom Skerritt and Patti LuPone.

Throughout the 1980s, Laws continued recording and performing alongside her three siblings in the United States and internationally. In 1985, she recorded "Crusin' Tonight," written and produced by George Duke, for the soundtrack of the motion picture The Heavenly Kid. In June 1987, she took first prize at the Midnight Sun Song Festival, an international television singing competition held in Lahti, Finland. Her concert appearances have included performances at Carnegie Hall, the Berkeley Jazz Festival, and the Hollywood Bowl, and she has toured in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

In the early 1990s, Laws undertook an extensive schedule of international touring and recording. In April and May 1991, she joined the Commodores for a 38-city European tour, and in November of that year she performed at a benefit for the children of Africa held in Lagos, Nigeria, alongside Kool and the Gang, Third World, Shabba Ranks, Rita Marley, and the Commodores, among others. In January and February 1992, she toured Asia, performing in Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. Her 1993 album Moments featured twelve songs, nine of which she produced, wrote, or co-wrote. That same year, rapper Big Daddy Kane covered "Very Special," and the song was later sampled by Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Lopez. Laws also recorded soundtrack contributions for Fighting Back and Prison Dancer and is featured on Pamela Williams' album Eight Days of Ecstasy.

In addition to her recording work, Laws pursued a stage career that included theater productions such as Suds, The Choice Is Yours, The World Is a Playground and a Great Big Circus, and Clothes Pins and Dreams, as well as film appearances in Crossroads (1986) and Jailbird Rock. Her Broadway credit came with the 1999 production of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues.

The prominence of "Very Special" also drew Laws into litigation. In March 2003, she sued Sony Music Entertainment and Epic Records in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, contesting the use of samples from the song in Jennifer Lopez's recording "All I Have," included on Lopez's album This Is Me... Then. Laws argued that the use of her voice without her consent violated her right of publicity under California law, even though Elektra Entertainment Group, which held the copyright, had granted Sony permission to use the samples. In November 2003, Judge Lourdes Baird granted Sony's motion for summary judgment, ruling that Laws's state law claims were preempted by Section 301 of the United States Copyright Act. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision in 2006. Laws and her production company, Spirit Productions, Inc., which is owned and controlled by her brother Hubert, subsequently sued Elektra Entertainment Group, Warner Music Group, and Warner Communications, Inc. in 2004, alleging that Elektra was contractually obligated to obtain consent before licensing the recording. Laws's claims were dismissed on res judicata grounds, and Spirit Productions' claims settled in early 2007 on undisclosed terms.