Mary Coughlan (born 5 May 1956, County Galway) is an Irish jazz and folk singer and actress. She has received great acclamation in her native country for her emotional and heartfelt jazzy musical renditions.

She was the eldest of five and had endured a very erratic youth. She left convent school and started drinking alcohol and taking drugs at just 15. At this age, she spent time in a mental hospital, after which she decided to leave home and later moved to London. In 1984, Mary moved back to Ireland and there started to perform in public, and soon was noticed by Dutch musician and producer Erik Visser, very popular in Europe, who helped her to record her first album, Tired and Emotional.

In spite of an up and down career due to her up and down personal life, in June 2000, Coughlan took another turn in her career when she presented a series of elaborate multimedia shows in Dublin and in London celebrating Billie Holiday, a singer whose life story had parallels to Coughlan’s own. The best of these shows was collected on the Mary Coughlan Sings Billie Holiday album.

Throughout the years, she had recorded many successful albums, her latest being, The Best of Mary Coughlan.

Visser, whose band Flairck were very popular in Europe at the time, helped Coughlan to record her first album, Tired and emotional. Visser would go on to become her long-term collaborator. The album sold an unexpected 100,000 copies in Ireland, partly because of a memorable appearance on The Late Late Show. Despite her ongoing personal problems, Coughlan continued to reap praise for her recording output on WEA. On Under the Influence (1987) she revived the 1948 Peggy Lee hit “Don’t Smoke in Bed” and the Billie Holiday ballad “Good Morning Heartache”, as well as Jimmy McCarthy’s “Ride On”, which reached number 5 on the Irish pop charts in 1987. 1988 was another successful year for Coughlan, she made her acting debut in Neil Jordan’s High Spirits. Despite her success, Coughlan lost her record contract with Warner Music Group.

However, in 1990, she signed up with East West Records and released her third album Uncertain Pleasures, recorded in the UK and produced by Peter Glenister, former musical director for Terence Trent D’Arby. It included new compositions by Mark Nevin (Fairground Attraction) and Bob Geldof as well as covers of the Rolling Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper” and Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” After receiving treatment for her personal problems, it seemed as though Coughlan had landed on her two feet once again. Sentimental Killer (1992) and Love for Sale (1993) were received well. In 1994, Coughlan lent her vocals to the hugely popular A Woman’s Heart Vol.2 album, along with the likes of Mary Black and Dolores Keane. Coughlan released her first live album, Live in Galway, and released another studio album in 1997, After the Fall, which became her American debut.

In June 2000, Coughlan took another turn in her career when she presented a series of elaborate multimedia shows in Dublin and in London celebrating Billie Holiday, a singer whose life story had parallels to Coughlan’s own. The best of these shows was collected on the Mary Coughlan Sings Billie Holiday album. A new studio album was released the following April 2001, entitled Long Honeymoon, and another in 2002, Red Blues. The 2000s saw the release of numerous Coughlan compilation albums and her appearance on the RTÉ reality charity show, Celebrity Farm. The release of her most recent offering in 2008, The House of Ill Repute, sparked reviews that suggested it was her best yet. She has also taken part in the Sanctuary album with Moya Brennan.