Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is one of Moya Brennan's
younger sisters. Enya began her musical career in 1980, when
she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to perform solo. She gained
wider recognition for her music in the 1987 BBC series The Celts. Shortly afterwards,
her 1988 album Watermark propelled her to further international fame and she became
known for her distinctive sound, characterised by voice-layering, folk melodies, synthesised
backdrops and ethereal reverberations. She has performed in 10 languages.
Enya continued to enjoy steady success during the 1990s and 2000s; her 2000 album A Day
Without Rain sold 15 million copies, and became the top selling new age album of the 2000s
in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan. She received the world's best-selling female
award at the World Music Awards in 2001. She is Ireland's best-selling solo musician. Her
record sales stand at more than 75 million worldwide, including over 26.5 million in
album sales in the US, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.
Her work has earned her four Grammy Awards and an Academy Award nomination.
Life and career 1961–83: Musical upbringing and Clannad
Enya was born and raised in Gweedore, County Donegal, in the northwest corner of Ireland.
She is part of an Irish-speaking, Catholic musical family, the sixth of nine children.
Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect
of the Irish language, her native tongue. Her grandparents were in a band that played
throughout Ireland, her father was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band before opening Leo's
Tavern, and her mother played in a dance band and later taught music at Pobalscoil Ghaoth
Dobhair. From a young age, Enya appeared in many pantomimes onstage at Gweedore's local
theatre and sang with her siblings in her mother's choir at St Mary's Catholic Church,
Derrybeg. She attended Loreto Community School in Milford, County Donegal and then moved
away to attend college wanting to become a classical pianist, continuing her studies
in music and also studying watercolour painting. Enya has four brothers and four sisters, several
of whom formed the band An Clann As Dobhar in 1968. They renamed the band Clannad in
the 1970s. In 1980, Enya worked with Clannad, the band composed of her siblings Máire,
Pól, and Ciarán and twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. Enya played the keyboard
and provided backing vocals on their album Crann Úll, although she was not officially
a member of the group until the 1981 release Fuaim, when she appeared on the cover. During
that same year, Enya was also a member of Ragairne, the band of Altan front-woman Mairéad
Ní Mhaonaigh. In 1982, shortly before Clannad became internationally renowned for "Theme
From Harry's Game", producer and manager Nicky Ryan left the group and Enya joined him to
start her own solo career. Enya then formed her own recording studio, named "Aigle", which
is French for "eagle". 1984–87: Career beginnings
Enya recorded two solo instrumental pieces called "An Ghaoth Ón Ghrian" and "Miss Clare
Remembers" that were released on the 1984 album Touch Travel. She was first credited
as Enya for writing some of the music for the 1984 movie The Frog Prince, which was
released on a soundtrack album of the same title. Another early appearance on record
followed in 1987, where Enya provided spoken vocals in Irish on the song "Never Get Old"
on Sinéad O'Connor's debut album, The Lion and the Cobra.
Enya was contracted to provide music for the soundtrack of the 1987 BBC television documentary,
The Celts. The music she produced was featured on her first solo album, Enya, but it attracted
little attention at the time. The B-side single "Eclipse" is actually a reversed and modified
version of Enya's song "Deireadh An Tuath" from this 1987 album. The song "Boadicea",
also from this album, would be sampled and modified by The Fugees on their single "Ready
or Not", causing a brief stir because the group neither sought permission from Enya
nor gave her credit initially. Mario Winans' song "I Don't Wanna Know" sampled the Fugees
sample, and is officially credited to Winans, Diddy and Enya. The song became Enya's highest
charting US single, peaking at No.2 on the Hot 100 in 2004.
1988–91: International breakthrough, Watermark and Shepherd Moons
Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career in 1988 with the album Watermark, which featured
the hit song "Orinoco Flow". "Orinoco Flow", reported to be named after Orinoco Studios,
where it was conceived, topped the charts in the United Kingdom and peaked at number
2 in Germany. The Watermark album sold eleven million copies.
Enya was quoted as saying: "The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of
music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me." Enya also said in an
interview paraphrased, "Watermark has in its theme searching, longing, of reaching out
for an answer. The ocean is a central image. It is the symbolism of a great journey, which
is the way I would describe this album." The surprise success of Watermark actually
led to a delay in the completion of Enya's third single, Storms in Africa because she
was busy travelling the world to promote the album. Storms in Africa was re-recorded for
the single and the deadline was missed. Record company WEA used TV adverts to promote Storms
in Africa by reminding audiences of Enya's previous two hits.
Three years later she followed with another hit album, Shepherd Moons, which sold twelve
million copies and earned Enya her first Grammy Award. Shepherd Moons is also her longest
charting album to date, spending 238 weeks on the Billboard 200. The songs "On Your Shore"
and "Exile" and "Epona" were featured in the 1991 film L.A. Story. "Ebudæ" is also featured
on the soundtrack to the Robin Williams feature film Toys, while the 1990 feature film Green
Card features "River", "Watermark", and "Storms in Africa". "Book of Days" was featured prominently
in the movie Far and Away, with an English-lyric version created for the film then replacing
the old Irish language version on all pressings of the Shepherd Moons album from 1993 onwards.
In 1993, her recording of "Marble Halls" from Shepherd Moons was featured in the Martin
Scorsese film, The Age of Innocence. 1992–99: The Celts, The Memory of Trees,
and Paint the Sky with Stars In 1992, a re-mastered version of the Enya
album was released as The Celts including a longer, modified version of "Portrait",
which was renamed "Portrait". Four years after Shepherd Moons she released
The Memory of Trees, another Top Five success in both the UK and Germany, as well as her
first Top 10 album in the U.S. Singles released from the album were "Anywhere Is" and "On
My Way Home". In 1997, Enya released her greatest hits collection,
Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya, again a top five smash in the UK and Germany,
which featured two new songs: "Paint the Sky with Stars" and "Only If..."; "Only If..."
later became a single.. She was offered the chance to compose the score for James Cameron's
1997 feature film Titanic, but she declined. A 1989 recording of Enya singing "Oíche Chiúin",
an Irish language version of "Silent Night", has been reissued at least twice: on The Christmas
EP and the 1997 edition of the charity album A Very Special Christmas.
Ansett Australia extensively used "Storms in Africa" for promotional purposes when the
airline re-branded itself in the 1990s. The 1992 film Sleepwalkers features "Boadicea"
as the film's signature tune. "Boadicea" has also been sampled in the popular Fugees song
"Ready or Not". 2000–04: A Day Without Rain
Following a five-year break Enya released the album A Day Without Rain in 2000, featuring
37 minutes of new material. The album is Enya's most successful to date, peaking at number
two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The first single, "Only Time", was used in the film
Sweet November and received U.S. radio airplay in late 2000. In May 2001, NBC began using
"Only Time" to accompany commercials for their television series Friends, which helped the
song top the Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts.
After the 11 September 2001 attacks "Only Time" was used as a soundtrack in many radio
and television reports about the attacks. Enya released a special edition of the song,
and a maxi single was issued on 20 November 2001 featuring a pop mix, with proceeds donated
to the families of victims. "Only Time" peaked at number 10 on the U.S. Hot 100, number 12
on the Pop Chart and hit number one on the Adult Contemporary and Hot Adult Contemporary
charts. In Germany, "Only Time" re-entered the German single charts at number 1 and the
album A Day Without Rain reached number one some weeks later. Enya won an Echo Award for
best selling international single in Germany of 2001, and received a nomination for best
selling album. In 2001, Enya recorded "May It Be", which
was featured in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, earning her an Academy
award nomination for Best Original Song. It was her second consecutive single to enter
the German charts at number one. The video features scenes from the Peter Jackson film.
Enya also performed the song "Aníron" – a song sung in Tolkien's Elvish language Sindarin
– for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
A new song called "Sumiregusa" was based on a Japanese poem by Roma Ryan. In September
2004, the song was used in Japan as part of an advertising campaign for Panasonic. Warner
Music Japan stated that Enya's next album was scheduled for release in Japan in mid-November.
Enya issued a press release on her official Web site on 19 September stating that this
was a mistake and no new album was immediately forthcoming.
2005–08: Amarantine and And Winter Came... In November 2005, a new album, entitled Amarantine,
was released. It reached the Top 10 in both the UK and the US, and peaked at number 3
in Germany. The album won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for 2007, Enya's fourth.
In 2006, Enya released several Christmas-themed CDs with newly recorded material. On 10 October
2006 Sounds of the Season: The Enya Holiday Collection was released containing six songs:
the previously released "Oíche Chiúin" and "Amid the Falling Snow", new recordings of
the standards "Adeste Fideles" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as well as two original
songs, "Christmas Secrets" and "The Magic of the Night". This CD was released only in
the United States in an exclusive partnership with the NBC television network and the Target
department store chain. Enya was awarded the World's Best-Selling Irish Act award at the
World Music Awards in London on 19 November 2006.
In late November two new editions of Amarantine were released. In the UK it was reissued as
Christmas Edition: Amarantine with a second disc containing the four new Christmas songs
previously issued on Sounds of the Season. The U.S. received a special version of this
release, which also included three postcards and a copy of Roma Ryan's book Water Shows
the Hidden Heart, which is referenced on the original album. Canadian fans could choose
from the Special Christmas Edition of Amarantine or an EP entitled Christmas Secrets, which
contained only the four new songs. By mid-2007, Enya claimed to have sold 80
million albums. An American businessperson has coined the phrase "enyanomics" to explain
Enya's ability to sell millions of records without giving any live performances. It is
defined as the inexplicable growth in sales of an artist in inverse relation to how much
publicity they have. On 29 June 2007, Enya received an honorary
doctorate from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Shortly after, on 10 July
2007, Enya received a second honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster.
November 2008 saw the release of And Winter Came… with a new video for the song "Trains
and Winter Rains". This album follows her passion for the Christmas period. It also
features guitar on the track "My! My! Time Flies!" and a chorale version of the previously
released "Oíche Chiúin". She promoted the album on morning news shows and performed
some songs live. 2009–present: The Very Best of Enya and
eighth studio album In March 2009, Warner Music Japan released
Enya's first 4 albums in a new format, called SHM-CD. On 23 November 2009 Enya released
a new album called The Very Best of Enya. It includes most of her hits from 1987 to
2008, as well as a new version of "Aníron", a song created for "The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring" in 2001. In 2010, singer Rihanna sampled "One By One" on the
song "Fading" from her new album Loud. In a May 2011 interview, Enya's manager said
that she is working on a new album and will likely tour to support it, with part of the
recording taking place in Abbey Road Studios in London. As of June 2014, neither a new
studio album release nor a promotional tour has been announced.
Enya's single "Only Time" was used by Volvo Trucks for their commercial starring Jean-Claude
Van Damme, released in November 2013, in which the action film star executed the splits while
suspended between two trucks. Numerous parodies of the commercial appeared online in the weeks
following, again using "Only Time". Musical style and other projects
As a musical group Enya represents a partnership between three people: Enya herself, who composes
and performs the music; Nicky Ryan, who produces the albums; and Roma Ryan, who writes the
lyrics in various languages, except Irish, in which Enya will render the lyrics herself.
Enya performs all instruments, and vocals in her pieces unless specified. Although there
are certain pieces where acoustic instruments are featured, almost all sounds of her pieces
are created by a synthesiser. Her trademark sound is achieved by layering the voices of
Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan, & herself many times. According to Enya, Angeles, the fifth track
on her album Shepherd Moons has about 500 layered vocal tracks.
Enya's vocal range is mezzo-soprano. Her signature sound uses simple arrangements with extensive
multi-tracking vocals. The vocals are performed individually, and are then layered together
to form a virtual choir, although all the voices are performed by Enya herself, along
with Nicky & Roma Ryan. In "Cursum Perficio" of the album Watermark, Enya reaches a C an
octave below middle C. Later in the piece, she sings a high A-flat above the treble clef.
On the album Amarantine Enya sings in Japanese and Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan.
The vocabulary is formed by Enya singing the notes to which Roma provides the phonetic
writing. There is no official syntax for Loxian. While most of her songs are sung in English,
some of Enya's songs are sung entirely in Irish or Latin. Enya has also sung songs written
entirely or partially in Welsh, Spanish, French, and even languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Enya has performed several songs relating to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings,
including 1991's "Lothlórien", and 2001's "May It Be", and "Aníron"—the latter two
appearing in Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and
on its soundtrack album. "May It Be" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Enya's performances are "semi-live", using playback music and singing. She has given
live performances on various television shows, events and ceremonies, but she has yet to
do a concert. She does not classify her music as belonging to the New Age genre. When asked
what genre she would classify her music as belonging to, she would reply, "Enya".
Personal life
In 1997, Enya bought a castle in Killiney, south of Dublin, for £2.5million, and named
it Manderley after the house in her favourite book, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Beginning
with Watermark, Enya began to attract the attention of stalkers, several of whom succeeded
in breaking into her castle and attacking some of the staff. As a result, Enya spent
an estimated £250,000 on security measures for her home. In 1996, a man who had been
seen in Dublin wearing her photograph around his neck stabbed himself after being ejected
from her parents' pub in County Donegal. In 2006, Enya made it to the number three
spot in the ranks of wealthy Irish entertainers with an estimated fortune of €109 million,
and number 95 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the 250 Wealthiest Irish People.
"My influences are with Irish music, church music and classical music," she said in a
1997 interview. In addition to performing for Pope John Paul
II, the singer participated in a live broadcast on British television for Christmas Eve in
1997, before she flew home to County Donegal to join her family at midnight Mass. She still
sings in her mother's choir every Christmas at midnight Mass, at St. Mary's Church.
Notable awards and tributes Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst
Original Song for "Book of Days". Grammy Awards of 1993, Best New Age Album
for Shepherd Moons Grammy Awards of 1997, Best New Age Album
for The Memory of Trees Grammy Awards of 2002, Best New Age Album
for A Day Without Rain Grammy Awards of 2007, Best New Age Album
for Amarantine Academy Award nomination for Best Original
Song for "May It Be". Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original
Song for "May It Be". The asteroid 6433 Enya, discovered on 18 November
1978 by Antonín Mrkos at Kleť Observatory, is named after her.
Enya was the subject of the song "Pumping Iron for Enya" by Atom and His Package on
their 1999 album Making Love Enya was the subject of an eponymous song,
"Enya" by Age of Electric. Discography
Enya Watermark
Shepherd Moons The Memory of Trees
A Day Without Rain Amarantine
And Winter Came... Video releases
The first official home video collection of music videos by Enya, Moonshadows, was issued
on VHS and laserdisc by Warner Music in 1991, containing most of her music videos up until
that point. This release occurred in both the UK and North America.
In 2000, Warner Music released Enya: The Video Collection on DVD in Europe, South Africa
and Asia, collecting all her videos from "Orinoco Flow" up to and including "Wild Child", except
for the video from "Book of Days", which was replaced by a live TV performance due to licensing
complications relating to the video's use of footage from the film Far and Away. The
DVD release also included interviews and features on the making of two videos.
A North American release of the Video Collection DVD was announced on several occasions during
2000–2001, but it did not occur; the reason for which has never been officially stated.
At one point it was announced that the release had been delayed to allow the inclusion of
the video for "May it Be", while the fan sites reported that a dispute over the sound quality
of the release led to it being withdrawn. Enya is featured in featurettes included with
the 2003 BBC Video DVD release of The Celts, including performances of several songs videotaped
in the late 1980s. This release was available in both the UK and North America.
In November 2009, the deluxe version of the compilation release The Very Best of Enya
included a DVD bonus disc containing most of the music videos from the 2001 release,
documentaries from that release, and videos from Enya's post-2001 albums. This DVD was
distributed in North America and remains available as of 2014.
Music videos The following is a list of music videos that
Enya has released: "Aldebaran"
"I Want Tomorrow" "Orinoco Flow"
"Storms in Africa" "Evening Falls"
"Exile" "How Can I Keep from Singing?"
"Caribbean Blue" "The Celts"
"Book of Days" "Anywhere Is"
"On My Way Home" "Only If..."
"Only Time" "Wild Child"
"Only Time" "May It Be"
"Amarantine" "It's in the Rain"
"Trains and Winter Rains" See also
Mononymous persons List of best-selling music artists
References
External links Enya.com – Enya official website
Enya on IMDB Enya at AllMusic
Enya at Billboard Enya at DMOZ
Works by or about Enya in libraries