This brought her to the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed her to a long-term contract - and the result was Gloria. She next sought work as an actor and singer, but her breakthrough came in 1979 when she was hired as a backing singer for a European tour by Leonard Cohen. After playing the lead in a high school musical theatre production, she attended the Academy for Performing Arts in Manhattan. Branigan was born in Brewster, New York, the fourth of five children of a stockbroker and a housewife.
