Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961;
anglicised
Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...
as Enya Patricia Brennan) known
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person.
A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...
ously as Enya, is an Irish singer and
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
. With an estimated equivalent of over 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after only the rock band
U2. Her music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened
reverb
In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...
, and interwoven elements of
Celtic music
Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celts (modern), Celtic people of Northwestern Europe (the modern Celtic nations). It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and ...
.
Raised in the
Irish-speaking region of
Gweedore, Enya began her musical career in 1980 playing alongside her family's
Irish folk band
Clannad
Clannad () were an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal, by siblings , and (Moya) (in English, Brennan) and their twin uncles Noel and (Duggan). They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history. Beginn ...
. She left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career, working with the former Clannad manager and producer,
Nicky Ryan
Nicholas Dominick Ryan (born 14 July 1946) is an Irish music producer, recording engineer, and manager. He is best known as the longtime business and recording partner for the singer, songwriter and musician Enya alongside his wife, poet and lyr ...
, and his wife
Roma, as their lyricist. Over the following four years, Enya further developed her sound by combining multitracked vocals and keyboards with elements from a variety of musical genres, such as
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
,
classical,
church,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
hip-hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
,
ambient,
world
The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...
, and
Irish folk. Her earliest solo releases were two piano/
synthesiser instrumentals for the ''Touch Travel'' T4 cassette compilation (1984) composed around 1982–83. The majority of the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
for ''
The Frog Prince
"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the fir ...
'' (1985) was composed by Enya, and she sang two songs with lyrics for the project. Enya also composed a body of work for a
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
series by the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
named ''
The Celts.'' A selection of Enya's pieces for ''The Celts'' were released as her
self-titled debut album in 1986, with the documentary and
BBC Records releases in 1987.
The
chairman
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...
of Warner Music at the time,
Rob Dickins, enjoyed listening to Enya's music for ''The Celts'' and signed her with
Warner Music UK. The initial record deal granted her considerable
artistic freedom
Artistic freedom (or freedom of artistic expression) can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Gener ...
and minimal interference. The success of her second studio album, ''
Watermark
A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...
'' (1988), propelled Enya to worldwide fame, primarily through her international hit single "
Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)". In the following
decade
A decade (from , , ) is a period of 10 years. Decades may describe any 10-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years.
Usage
Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement ...
and up to the
new millennium, she released the multi-million-selling albums ''
Shepherd Moons'' (1991), ''
The Memory of Trees'' (1995), and ''
A Day Without Rain'' (2000). Sales of ''A Day Without Rain'' and its lead single, "
Only Time", surged in the United States following its use in media coverage of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. Her subsequent releases included ''
Amarantine'' (2005), ''
And Winter Came...'' (2008) and ''
Dark Sky Island'' (2015).
"Boadicea", a track from her eponymous album, appeared in the soundtrack of
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
's 1992 horror film ''
Sleepwalkers'' and has since been sampled in several hit songs, including "
Ready or Not" (1996) by
Fugees and "
I Don't Wanna Know" (2004) featuring
Mario Winans, which became the second Number 1 single featuring Enya, in the UK charts. The song, featuring both the synthesiser and Enya
humming the melody, continues to be sampled almost 4 decades since its first release in 1986.
Enya's accolades include four
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
, six
World Music Awards, and she holds the record as the most-nominated female Irish artist at the
BRIT Awards, with four nominations. "
May It Be", her composition from the soundtrack of
''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' (2001), received a nomination for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
for Best Original Song. In March 2025, Enya received the
RTÉ Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album award, with her 1988 breakthrough album ''Watermark''. Enya's latest public appearance was on 16 May 20
.
Early life
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin was born in the Dore area of Gaoth Dobhair (
Gweedore) in
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...
on 17 May 1961.
She is the sixth of nine children in the
Brennan family of musicians, born to Máire "Baba" and Leopold "Leo" Brennan. In 1968, the couple took ownership of a
pub in Meenaleck, Co. Donegal, naming it
Leo's Tavern.
Leo Brennan was the leader of an
Irish showband named the Slieve Foy Band, before performing solo. Baba Brennan (née Duggan) is said to have
Spanish roots with ancestors who settled on
Tory Island and she was an
amateur
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
musician who played with the Slieve Foy Band.
Enya's mother also taught music at
Gweedore Community School.
Gweedore is a
Gaeltacht
A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home.
The districts were first officially recognised ...
region, where the
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
, also known as
Gaelic, is primarily spoken. Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, her name, is
anglicised
Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...
as Enya Patricia Brennan,
with "Enya" being the phonetic spelling of how "Eithne" is pronounced in the Donegal
Ulster dialect.
The name Brennan was accidentally added to Leo's name at his
birth registration in 1925; his family name was Hardin; Leo used
Brennan for the surname of his children. In Irish, the surname is "Ó Braonáin"/"Ní" Bhraonáin - corresponding to "son of"/"daughter of Brennan".
Leo's father Harry Hardin was a pianist, and he died performing on stage. Enya's paternal grandmother, Minna Lenehan, played the
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
. They were both believed to have been born in England. Regarding Baba's parents, Enya's maternal grandfather, Aodh (anglicised as Hugh; affectionately addressed as Hughie or "Gog") was the headmaster of the primary school in Dore; her grandmother, Mháire Duggan (anglicised as Mary; née Gillespie) was a teacher. Aodh was also the founder of the Aisteoiri Ghaodobhair, the
Gweedore Theatre company.
Enya has described her upbringing as 'very quiet and happy'.
She mentioned that 'the house I grew up in was on my grandparents’ property, behind their house. Ours was built in the 1950s and wasn’t very big.'
Regarding her position in the family, Enya said 'it was difficult to be heard, but I was very comfortable with that because I was able to be myself, able to be let alone.'
She also acknowledged that there was 'continual hustle and bustle and crying and chaos' amongst the nine siblings. Their maternal grandparents and aunt were quite involved with the siblings' upbringing at home, as Baba and Leo were travelling with the showband; Enya recalled 'they toured a great deal, mostly in Ireland and Scotland. When they did, my grandmother and my mother’s sister took care of us.'
Enya's songs "On Your Shore" and "Smaointe" (first released as the Orinoco Flow B-side track "Smaoitím") are dedicated to both her maternal grandmother and grandfather.
Along with the siblings' enjoyment of their childhood spent in Gweedore, they also grew up amid
the Troubles
The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...
. Enya recalls that when her family visited shops in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
for instance, 'you’d be checked by people standing with guns', and even speaking in Irish in Derry was 'pinpointing where you came from, and it was too political at the time. Whereas for
nya and siblingsit was our first language, and we didn’t see anything wrong with it.'
Enya took part in her first singing competitions at the annual
Feis Ceoil music festival between the ages of three and five years old.
She also participated in pantomimes at the Gweedore Theatre, as seen in an early group picture where
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh was also presen
. Enya often recalls that at three-and-a-half years of age, she played the character
Little Red Riding Hood on stage, singing a song. At the age of four, Enya began piano lessons and was learning English throughout primary school. In 2008, Enya described her early studies, having 'to do school work and then travel to a neighbouring town for piano lessons, and then more school work. I remember my brothers and sisters playing outside and I would be inside playing the piano, this one big book of
scales
Scale or scales may refer to:
Mathematics
* Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points
* Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original
* Scale factor, a number ...
, practising them over and over.'
One particular memory of a very early public performance of singing at age five was recounted by Enya in her 2016
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
article. At the theatre, contestants would 'perform two songs, starting with a slow one and finishing with a fast one
..songs we were taught in
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
.' Enya's mother was the pianist, and provided the starting notes for each person performing. By mistake, Enya 'began with the fast song. I didn’t realize my error until I saw my mother’s frown. I stopped singing and covered my mouth. There was silence, followed by laughter.' Enya then 'sang the right song. When I finished, there was a pause and I sang the fast song again. I won the contest
..determined to get it right, and the audience’s laughter didn’t deter me.'
A large part of Enya's early musical background involved singing choral music alongside siblings in their mother's
choir
A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
(Cór Mhuire) at the now destroyed St Mary's church in
Derrybeg. The siblings' father played the
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
style on the
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
, particularly
Glenn Miller
Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...
-type songs. Beyond the music she grew up around, Enya was aware of many artists of the 1960s and early '70s, and enjoyed watching
musical films. In a radio interview with
Elaine Page in November 2008, Enya shared a selection of favourite songs from musicals. She said of ''
Jesus Christ Superstar
''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Life of Jesus in the New Testament, Gospels' accounts of Passion of Jesus, the Passion, the work interprets ...
'', 'it was such an original piece of music in 1970
..played in my house every single day, and myself and my sisters would sing word for word.'
Enya's brother Ciarán also mentioned that when the siblings were younger, before having a tape recorder, as Moya and Enya sang, he would play piano, 'give them two-part
harmonies
In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...
and say, "You go into the kitchen, you go into the bathroom" and they were fascinated by this because musically it was very melodic, even though they wouldn't finally hear their parts until they sang together.'
In addition to her musical endeavours, Enya also took part in local events, such as the inaugural Gaeltacht Festival in Gweedore, June 1970. At the age of nine, Enya participated in the Cailín Gaelach (Irish Girl) competition, which judged contestants on 'their fluency of spoken Irish, involvement in social and cultural activities in their parish and community, and appearance and deportment.' The competition was filmed and published in the
RTÉ Archives
(; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...
in 2020.
From the age of 11, Enya attended a
convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
boarding school in
Milford, Milford College,
run by the
Sisters of Loreto
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward (nun), Mary Ward, i ...
;
Enya's education there was paid for by her grandfather.
The boarding school, now Loreto Community School, was where Enya developed a taste for classical music, art, Latin, and
watercolour painting.
She said, 'It was devastating to be torn away from such a large family but it was good for my music.'
Enya finished boarding school at age 17 towards the end of the 1970s, and she spent a year at college studying classical music. She previously saw herself becoming a piano teacher, as both her mother and grandmother had done, and gave piano lessons for a brief time in the early 1980s. This later evolved into composing and performing her own music.
Enya states that 'music was never far from my mind but contrary to popular belief my ambitions were in no way connected to those of my family, as I knew I wanted to have my own career and make my own mark.'
Enya has noted that she 'was always quiet, even as a child, so there has always been an air of mystery around me' also mentioning that 'at school, they’d always say, "oh, we never know what Eithne’s thinking or what she’ll say next".'
Career
1980–1982: Clannad
In 1970, several members of Enya's family formed
Clannad
Clannad () were an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal, by siblings , and (Moya) (in English, Brennan) and their twin uncles Noel and (Duggan). They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history. Beginn ...
, a
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
folk band.
Clannad hired
Nicky Ryan
Nicholas Dominick Ryan (born 14 July 1946) is an Irish music producer, recording engineer, and manager. He is best known as the longtime business and recording partner for the singer, songwriter and musician Enya alongside his wife, poet and lyr ...
as their manager, sound engineer, and producer, and Ryan's girlfriend (later his wife)
Roma as tour manager and administrator.
In 1980, after a year at college, Enya decided not to go to university and pursue a music degree, and instead accepted Nicky Ryan's invitation to play alongside the band Clannad, with him having wanted to expand their sound with keyboards and an additional vocalist.
Enya performed an uncredited role on their sixth studio album, ''
Crann Úll'' (1980), with a line-up of her eldest siblings
Moya,
Pól, and
Ciarán Brennan, and twin uncles
Noel and
Pádraig Duggan. She features in their follow-up, ''
Fuaim'' (1982), singing lead vocals on the song "An Túll" (The Apple).
The membership status of Enya in Clannad is a matter of some dispute. In a late 2000s interview, Ciarán mentioned that Enya was a 'hired hand' and not a full member, commenting that 'she was 18, 19 and we were paying her £500 sterling a week.'
In a BBC Radio Ulster interview with Moya in late 2023, she also noted that Enya was considered a hired hand with Clannad.
Nicky Ryan also said it was not his intention to make Enya a permanent member, as she was 'fiercely independent
..intent on playing her own music. She was just not sure of how to go about it.'
In a 1991 interview, Enya herself said that she 'wouldn't call what happened a "split"and that she 'wasn't really a full member of Clannad.' Enya added 'I always felt I was just passing through
..I was 18 and had studied music and was really feeling my way, trying to see what I could do.'
Nicky discussed the idea of layering vocals to create a "choir of one" with Enya, a concept inspired by
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...
's
Wall of Sound technique that had interested them both.
During a Clannad tour in Switzerland, 1982, Nicky called for a band meeting to address internal issues that had arisen, which he put down to the excessive drinking of one or two members.
He recalled: 'It was short and only required a vote, I was a minority of one and lost. Roma and I were out. This left the question of what happened with Enya. I decided to stand back and say nothing.'
Enya chose to leave with the Ryans and pursue a solo career, having felt confined in the group and disliking being 'somebody in the background'. In an extended interview from 1989, Enya said that 'I wasn't composing it
he music I was just ''there'', you know.' The split caused some friction between the parties but, in time, they settled their differences.
[ Enya's brother Ciarán also spoke to Nicky Ryan around 2006, interested in recording in their studio with her, but Ryan suggested that this was unlikely to occur.] Moya often praises Enya for what she has gone on to achieve in her solo career, and supposes that there were some musical foundations that Enya had built from her short time with the band.
1982–1986: Early solo career
Enya stated, following her departure from Clannad, 'the fact is that I had become very friendly with Nicky and Roma. I trusted them ..basically, I felt there was more there for me career-wise.'
Nicky suggested to Enya that either she return to Gweedore 'with no particular definite future', or live with him and Roma in suburban Artane, Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
'and see what happens, musically', the latter of which Enya decided was best for her career. After their bank denied them a loan, Enya reportedly sold her saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
, which she had been learning to play at the time, and also gave piano lessons as a source of income. Nicky Ryan used what they could afford to build a recording facility in the Ryans' garden shed, formerly a Scout hut, which they named "Aigle Studio", after the French word for eagle.
A visitor to the house in the early 1980s described access as having to 'walk through the house to get to the studio ..the kids icky and Roma's daughterswere young then so the place was strewn with toys but the set-up suited everyone. They'd have breakfast and Enya would head off to the studio.'
Shortly after leaving Clannad and thus the family home in Gweedore, Enya lived with the Ryans from 1982, until 1989, when she was able to buy a penthouse apartment in Killiney
.
ref name="Enya_own_words_89">
Enya and the Ryans rented out the original Aigle Studio out to other musicians to help recoup the costs.
The trio formed a musical and business partnership, with Nicky as Enya's producer and arranger and Roma as her lyricist.
They called their company, of which each owns a third, Aigle Music. In the following two years, Enya developed her technique and composition by listening to recordings of her reciting pieces of classical music and repeated this process until she started to improvise sections and develop her own arrangements.
Following her departure from Clannad in 1982, Enya (as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin) featured on tracks alongside a few artists, often on keyboards or backing vocals, with Nicky Ryan as producer. She played the Prophet-5 synthesiser on the group Altan's ''Ceol Aduaidh,'' led by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and the late Frankie Kennedy. That year, Enya had the original offer from Mike Oldfield to sing on a new song of his, likely to have been "
Moonlight Shadow". Supposedly due to existing contract clashes, she had to decline, so Oldfield later approached Scottish singer
Maggie Reilly who sang on the record for Oldfield. An Irish folk-type song named "Bailieboro and Me", penned by
Charlie McGettigan
Charles Joseph McGettigan (born 7 December 1950, Ballyshannon, County Donegal) is an Irish people, Irish singer. He lived in 2009 in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim.
Career
Performing with Paul Harrington (musician), Paul Harrington, he won the Eu ...
, features Enya singing backing vocals on a 1982 recording, primarily credited as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin playing the grand piano for the song.
Enya's first solo endeavours began around 1982-83, when she began to compose two piano instrumentals, "An Ghaoth Ón Ghrian" (Irish for "The Solar Wind") and "Miss Clare Remembers". Both were recorded at
Windmill Lane Studios
Windmill Lane Recording Studios (earlier Windmill Lane Studios) is a recording studio in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was originally opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson and James Morris on Windmill Lane, and it subsequently relocated in ...
in Dublin and released on ''Touch Travel'' (1984), a limited-release cassette compilation of music from various artists on the UK ''Touch'' label. She is credited as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin in the liner notes.
After several months of preparation, Enya's first live solo performance took place at the
National Stadium in Dublin on 23 September 1983, and was televised for
RTÉ
(; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...
's music show ''Festival Folk''. Niall Morris, a musician who worked with her during this time, recalled she 'was so nervous she could barely get on stage, and she cowered behind the piano until the gig was over.'
Morris assisted Enya in the production of a demo tape, adding additional keyboards to her compositions.
Roma thought the music would suit accompanying visuals and sent it to various film producers. Among them was
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (; born 25 February 1941), is a British-Irish film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include '' Chariots of Fire' ...
, after Roma had read an interview where he stated a particular interest in strong melodies.
Puttnam liked the tape and offered Enya to compose
the soundtrack to the upcoming romantic comedy film, ''
The Frog Prince
"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the fir ...
'' (1984), directed by
Brian Gilbert.
Enya scored nine pieces for the soundtrack. However, Enya's instrumental pieces for the film were rearranged and orchestrated by Richard Myhill. The film editor
Jim Clark said the rearrangements were necessary as Enya found it difficult to compose to picture. Enya's two songs with vocals were not in the film, but on the soundtrack album, those being "The Frog Prince" and "Dreams", but the melodies are present throughout the film soundtrack. The words to "Dreams" were penned by Charlie McGettigan.
Released in 1985, the album is the first commercial release that credits her as "Enya".
The spelling as "Enya" for her began in 1983. Nicky Ryan suggested this phonetic spelling of her name,
with the likeliness that Eithne would be mispronounced by non-Irish speakers. Enya looked back at her composition work on the film as a good career move, but a disappointing one as 'we weren't part of it at the end.'
Also in 1985, she sang on three tracks on the album ''
Ordinary Man'' (1985) by
Christy Moore.
Enya's earliest interviews in English as a solo artist began in 1986. Whatever direction her music would take, she believed in being a 'true Celt at heart' and stated that 'any music I write, whether it be a pop song or a classical piece, would be Celtic music.'
1985–1989: ''The Celts'' and ''Watermark''

In 1985, producer
Tony McAuley asked Enya to contribute a track for the six-part BBC television documentary series ''
The Celts''. She had already written a Celtic-influenced song called "March of the Celts", and Nicky Ryan submitted it to the project. Each episode was to feature a different composer at first, but director David Richardson liked her track so much that he had Enya score the entire series.
[ Enya recorded 72 minutes of music at Aigle Studio and the BBC studios in Wood Lane, London, without recording to the picture. She was required to portray certain themes and ideas that the producers wanted; however, in contrast with ''The Frog Prince'', she worked with little interference, which granted her freedom to establish the sound][ that she would adopt throughout her future career, signified by layered vocals, keyboard-oriented music, and percussion with elements of Celtic, classical, church, and folk music.
In March 1987, two months before ''The Celts'' aired, a 40-minute selection of Enya's score was released as her debut solo album, '']Enya
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961; anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan) known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of over 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selli ...
'', by BBC Records in the United Kingdom, with the Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
release in the United States in 1986. The latter promoted it with a new-age imprint on the packaging, which Nicky thought was 'a cowardly thing for them to do'. The album gained enough public attention to reach number 8 on the Irish Albums Chart and number 69 on the UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
. " I Want Tomorrow" was released as Enya's first single. " Boadicea" was later sampled by the Fugees on their 1996 song " Ready or Not"; the group neither sought permission nor gave credit. Enya took legal action and the group subsequently gave her credit; they paid a fee of approximately $3 million. Later in 1987, Enya appeared on Sinéad O'Connor
Shuhada' Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor; , ; 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023) was an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and activist. Her debut studio album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and achieve ...
's debut album ''The Lion and the Cobra
''The Lion and the Cobra'' is the debut studio album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, released on 5 October 1987 by Ensign Records, Ensign and Chrysalis Records.
O'Connor recorded the album while in the later stages of pregnancy with her first ...
'', reciting Psalm 91 in Irish on the track "Never Get Old" which Enya later posted the words of as her tribute message to Sinéad following her passing in July 20
.
Several weeks after the release of ''Enya'', Enya secured a recording contract with Warner Music UK after Rob Dickins, the label's chairman and a fan of Clannad, took a liking to ''Enya'' and found himself playing it 'every night before I went to bed.' He later met Enya and the Ryans at a chance meeting at the Irish Recorded Music Association
The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is a non-profit association set up in 1999 to promote certain interests of the music industry in Ireland. It is particularly active in addressing copyright issues, and it compiles the official music ...
award ceremony in Dublin, where he learned that Enya had entered negotiations with a rival label. Dickins seized the opportunity and signed her, in doing so granting her wish to write and record with artistic freedom, minimal interference from the label, and without set deadlines to finish albums. Dickins said: 'Sometimes you sign an act to make money, and sometimes you sign an act to make music. This was the latter... I just wanted to be involved with this music.' Enya left Atlantic and signed with the Warner-led Geffen Records
Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...
to handle her American distribution.
When asked about whether women in pop have a hard time, she responded 'yes, they do. Definitely.' However, Enya has considered her position as a composer rather than just a vocalist to be an advantage 'because I write and perform much of the music, I'm taken more seriously than the girls who just walk into a studio, do a vocal and that's it. I can't even ''imagine'' what that would be like.'
With the green light
Green Light, green light, green-light or greenlight may refer to:
* Green-colored light, part of the visible spectrum
* Greenlight, formal approval of a project to move forward
Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television
* Green Light ( ...
to produce a new album, Enya recorded ''Watermark
A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...
'' from June 1987 to April 1988.[ It was initially recorded in analogue at Aigle before Dickins requested to have it re-recorded digitally at Orinoco Studios in ]Bermondsey
Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...
, London.
''Watermark'' was released in September 1988 and became an unexpected hit, reaching number 5 in the United Kingdom[ and number 25 on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the United States following its release there in January 1989.] Its lead single, " Orinoco Flow", was the last song written for the album. It was not intended to be a single at first, but Enya and the Ryans chose it after Dickins jokingly asked for a single; he knew that Enya's music was not made for the Top 40 chart. Dickins and engineer Ross Cullum are referenced in the song's lyrics.[ "Orinoco Flow" became an international top 10 hit and was number one in the United Kingdom for three weeks,][ and is credited with bringing new-age music to the mainstream market in America. The new-found success propelled Enya to international fame and she received endorsement deals and offers to use her music in television commercials] She spent a year traveling worldwide to promote the album which increased her exposure through interviews, appearances, and live performances.
1989–1998: ''Shepherd Moons'', ''The Memory of Trees'' and ''Paint the Sky with Stars''
After promoting ''Watermark'', Enya purchased new recording equipment and started work on her next album, '' Shepherd Moons''. She found that the success of ''Watermark'' added a considerable amount of pressure when it came to writing new songs, stating, 'I kept thinking, "Would this have gone on ''Watermark''? Is it as good?" Eventually I had to forget about this and start on a blank canvas and just really go with what felt right.'
Roma Ryan wrote songs based on several ideas, including diary entries from Enya, the Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War.
Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...
in London, and her grandparents. ''Shepherd Moons'' was released in November 1991, her first album released under Warner-led Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels.
Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Green Day, En ...
in the United States. It became a greater commercial success than ''Watermark'', reaching number one in the UK for one week and number 17 in the United States. " Caribbean Blue", its lead single, charted at number 13 in the United Kingdom.
In 1991, Warner Music released a collection of five Enya music videos as ''Moonshadows'' for home video
Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
. In 1993 Enya won her first Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in the Best New Age Album category for ''Shepherd Moons''. Soon after, Enya and Nicky entered discussions with Industrial Light & Magic
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...
, founded by George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...
, regarding an elaborate stage lighting system for a proposed concert tour, but nothing resulted from those discussions. In November 1992, Warner obtained the rights to ''Enya'' and re-released the album as '' The Celts'' with new artwork. It surpassed its initial sale performance, reaching number 10 in the UK.[
After travelling worldwide to promote ''Shepherd Moons'', Enya started to write and record her fourth album, '' The Memory of Trees''.] By this time, the Ryans had moved to the southern Dublin suburb of Killiney, and a new Aigle Studio had been built alongside their home, with new recording facilities which eliminated the need to go to London to finish recording for the album. The new album was released in November 1995 and peaked at number 5 in the UK and number 9 in the US, where it sold over 3 million copies. Its lead single, " Anywhere Is", reached number 7 in the UK. The second, " On My Way Home", reached number 26 in the UK. In late 1994, Enya put out an extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
of Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...
titled ''The Christmas EP''. Enya was offered the opportunity to compose the film score for ''Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' but declined as it would be a collaboration, rather than solely her composition and singing. A recording of her singing "Oíche Chiúin", an Irish-language version of "Silent Night
"Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO
The United Nations Educati ...
", appeared on the charity album '' A Very Special Christmas 3'', released in benefit of the Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...
in October 1997.
In early 1997, Enya began to select tracks for her first compilation album, 'trying to select the obvious ones, the hits, and others.'[ She chose to work on the collection following the promotional tour for ''The Memory of Trees'' as she felt it was the right time in her career, and that her contract with WEA required her to release a "best of" album. The set, named '' Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya'', features two new tracks, "Paint the Sky with Stars" and " Only If...".] Released in November 1997, the album was a worldwide commercial success, reaching number 4 in the UK[ and number 30 in the US,][ where it went on to sell over 4 million copies.
"Only If..." was released as a single in 1997. Enya described the album as 'like a musical diary... each melody has a little story and I live through that whole story from the beginning... your mind goes back to that day and what you were thinking.']
1998–2007: ''A Day Without Rain'' and ''Amarantine''
In 1998, Enya, Roma and Nicky Ryan received the Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century.
He was born into a musical ...
award for International Achievement. That year, Enya started work on her fifth studio album, titled '' A Day Without Rain.'' In a departure from her previous albums, Enya incorporated greater use of a synthesised string section
The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...
into her compositions, something that was not a conscious decision at first, but Enya and Nicky Ryan agreed that it complemented the songs that were being written. The album was released in November 2000 and reached number 6 in the UK[ and an initial peak of number 17 in the US.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, US sales of the album and its lead single " Only Time" surged after the song was widely used during radio and television coverage of the events,] leading to its description as 'a post-September 11th anthem'. The exposure caused ''A Day Without Rain'' to outperform its original chart performance to peak at number 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and the release of a maxi-single
A maxi single, maxi-single, or maxi CD (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especial ...
containing the original and a pop remix of "Only Time" in November 2001. Enya donated its proceeds in aid of the International Association of Firefighters. The song topped the ''Billboard'' Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...
chart and went to number 10 on the Hot 100 singles, Enya's highest charting US single to date.
In 2001, Enya agreed to write and perform on two tracks for the soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
of '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' (2001) at the request of director Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...
. Composer Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, conductor and orchestrator noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and '' The Hobbit'' fi ...
'imagined her voice' as he wrote the film's score, making an uncommon exception to include another artist in one of his soundtracks. After flying to New Zealand to observe the filming and to watch a rough cut of the film, Enya returned to Ireland and composed " Aníron" (the theme for Aragorn and Arwen), with lyrics by Roma in J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
's fictional Elvish language Sindarin, and " May It Be", sung in English and another Tolkien language, Quenya
Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in '' Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed l ...
. Shore then based his orchestrations around Enya's recorded vocals and themes to create "a seamless sound".[
In 2002, Enya released "May It Be" as a single which earned her an ]Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nomination for Best Original Song. She performed the song live with an orchestra at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony in March 2002, and later cited the moment as a career highlight. Her two songs for the film were recorded at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...
.
Enya undertook additional studio projects in 2001 and 2002. The first was work on the soundtrack of the Japanese romantic film '' Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' (2001), which was subsequently released as '' Themes from Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' (2001).
This release is formed of tracks spanning her career from ''Enya'' to ''A Day Without Rain'' with two B-sides. The album went to number 2 in Japan and became Enya's second album to sell one million copies in the country.
In 2004, Enya had another significant "Boadicea" sampling request from Diddy, for the song " I Don't Wanna Know" performed by Mario Winans. She said that the producer 'phoned the studio we were working in and Nicky took the call and he iddyjust said he had this fantastic singer that he was working with and it was Mario Winans. Immediately we said “send the song” and it was a great song.'
In September 2003, Enya returned to Aigle Studio to start work on her sixth studio album, '' Amarantine''. Roma said the title means "everlasting".[ The album marks the first instance of Enya singing in Loxian, a fictional language created by Roma that came about when Enya was working on "Water Shows the Hidden Heart". After numerous attempts to sing the song in English, Irish, and Latin, Roma suggested a new language based on some of the sounds Enya would sing along to when developing her songs. It was a success, and Enya sang "Less Than a Pearl" and "The River Sings" in the same way. Roma worked on the language further, creating a 'culture and history' behind it surrounding the Loxian people who are on another planet, questioning the existence of life outside of Earth.][ "Sumiregusa (Wild Violet)" is sung in Japanese.][ ''Amarantine'' was a global success, reaching number 6 on the ''Billboard'' 200][ and number 8 in the UK.][ It has sold over 1 million certified copies in the US, a considerable drop in sales in comparison to her previous albums. Enya dedicated the album to BBC producer Tony McAuley who had commissioned Enya to write the soundtrack to ''The Celts'', following his death in 2003.] The lead single, " Amarantine", was released in December 2005.[
]
2008–2017: ''And Winter Came...'' and ''Dark Sky Island''
Enya wrote music with a winter and Christmas theme for her seventh studio album, '' And Winter Came...'' Initially, she intended to make an album of seasonal songs and hymns, set for a release in late 2007, but the trio decided to produce a winter-themed album instead.
The second promotional single of the album " My! My! Time Flies!", is a tribute to the late Irish guitarist Jimmy Faulkner, incorporates a guitar solo performed by Pat Farrell, the first guitar solo on an Enya album since "I Want Tomorrow" from ''Enya''. The lyrics also include some musical pop-culture references, such as The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' famous photo shoot for the cover of ''Abbey Road
''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although '' Let It Be'' (1970) was the last album completed before th ...
,'' and the lyric "a rap on a rhapsody" possibly referring to "Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''A Night at the Opera (Queen album), A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by Queen's lead si ...
" by Queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
. Upon its release in November 2008, ''And Winter Came...'' reached number 6 in the UK,[ number 8 in the US][ and sold almost 3.5 million copies worldwide by 2011.]
After promoting ''And Winter Came'', Enya took an extended break from writing and recording music. She spent her time resting, visiting family in Australia, and renovating her new home in the south of France. In March 2009, her first four studio albums were reissued in Japan in the Super High Material CD format with bonus tracks. Her second compilation album, '' The Very Best of Enya'', was released in November 2009 and featured songs from 1987 to 2008, including a previously unreleased version of "Aníron" and a DVD compiling most of her music videos to date.
In 2012, Enya returned to the studio to record her eighth album, '' Dark Sky Island''. Its name refers to the island of Sark
Sark (Sercquiais: or , ) is an island in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, and part of the archipelago of the Channel Islands. It is a self-governing British Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency, with its own set o ...
, which became the first island to be designated a dark-sky preserve
A dark-sky preserve (DSP) is an area, usually surrounding a park or observatory, that restricts or reduces light pollution or maintains and protects naturally dark night skies. Different terms have been used to describe these areas as national or ...
, and a series of poems on islands by Roma Ryan.
In 2013, "Only Time" was used in the " Epic Split" advertisement by Volvo Trucks
Volvo Trucks () is a truck manufacturing division of Volvo based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Volvo Trucks was a separate company within Volvo. The Volvo Group was reorganised on 1 January 2012 and as a part of the process, Volvo Trucks ceased to b ...
starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate schoo ...
, who does the splits while suspended between two lorries. As a result, Enya's song "Only Time" re-entered both the US Billboard 100 and UK Official Charts in November 2013.
Dark Sky Island was announced on Enya's website on 15 September 2015. Prior to this, guest musician Eddie Lee shared a post in August 2015, which indicated that new music by Enya was in progress.
Upon the album's streaming release on 20 November 2015, a week before physical release, ''Dark Sky Island'' went to number 4 in the UK album charts
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...
, Enya's highest charting studio album since ''Shepherd Moons'' went to number 1. The album went to number 8 in the US. A deluxe edition features three additional songs. Enya completed a promotional tour of the UK, Europe, the US, and Japan. During her visit to Japan, Enya performed "Orinoco Flow" and " Echoes in Rain" at the Universal Studios Japan
is a theme park located in Osaka, Japan. Opened on March 31, 2001, it is one of six Universal Destinations & Experiences, Universal Studios theme parks worldwide and was the first to open outside the United States. The park is owned and operat ...
Christmas show in Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
. In Japan, in addition to performances of her music, she made several TV appearances featuring her partaking in Japanese culture, including wearing a kimono
The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...
, walking through Maruyama Park in Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, and visiting the top floor of the Tokyo Skytree
, also written as Tokyo Sky Tree, is a broadcasting and observation tower, located in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It has been the tallest tower in Japan since opening in 2012, .
On 22 July 2016, Bosnian-Swedish DJ Salvatore Ganacci released the single "Dive", which heavily samples "Boadicea" and features vocals from Alex Aris. The single peaked number 14 on the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Digital Songs Sales chart.
In December 2016, Enya appeared on the Irish television show ''Christmas Carols from Cork'', marking her first Irish television appearance in over seven years. She sang " Adeste Fideles", "Oíche Chiúin", and "The Spirit of Christmas Past".
2019–present; further acclaim and future projects
Since late 2019, there had been a significant increase in activity from Enya's official social platforms. There have been more official Enya posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, updates to Enya tracks and playlists on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, as well as YouTube channel updates and new content. Several music videos on Enya's official YouTube channel have undergone 4K/HD conversion since 2020. Numerous YouTube "watch party" videos and vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
re-releases marking anniversaries of Enya's music albums and compilations have been released since. Regarding a new studio album, there have been mentions about Enya recording new music, according to several close sources. As of 2019, Enya's sister Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...
had mentioned that Enya was recording music.
The first of these videos was in November 2020, posted on Enya's official YouTube channel to commemorate the 20th anniversary of ''A Day Without Rain.'' In addition to the individual tracks from the album, it included handwritten introductory messages from Enya and Roma Ryan, plus a closing message from Nicky Ryan. Some behind-the-scenes clips from the making-of the music videos for "Only Time" and "Wild Child", both directed by Graham Fink, were also included.
For the ''Shepherd Moons 30th Anniversary Watch Party video'' in November 2021, Nicky Ryan's introductory message noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Aigle Studio underwent some renovations, with new recording equipment and instruments installed, and that with this done, Enya and the Ryans were eager to start working on new music.
A 20th-anniversary vinyl picture disc
Picture discs are gramophone record, gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics ...
re-release of the "May It Be" single was also released in late 2021.
Enya's music continues to be sampled or interpolated by many modern-day producers, particularly her 1986 humming song "Boadicea", in songs within the R&B or hip-hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
genres. Enya had previously noted for her 2015 album Dark Sky Island, that 'several songs here have a stronger beat, and even a little hip-hop influence.'
In 2022, for Metro Boomin
Leland Tyler Wayne (born September 16, 1993), known professionally as Metro Boomin, is an American record producer and music executive. Widely acclaimed for his dark and cinematic production style, he is regarded as one of the most influential p ...
and The Weeknd's song "Creepin'" featuring samples from her 1987 song "Boadicea", Enya didn't approve of the song to be released under the working title "IDWK" (referring to the song I Don't Wanna Know). Metro reportedly asked Enya to select song titles that she would be happy with, which included "Undecided," "Creepin'", "Don't Come Back to Me", "Better Off That Way" and "Wanna Let You Know". Metro said '"Creepin'" was the one ..It ended up being a blessing because it's the best name for it.'
In early December 2024, "Creepin'" won the BMI London Song of the Year, with composition credits and awards including both Enya and Nick icRyan.
In June 2023, Enya's 1997 limited compilation '' A Box of Dreams'' was re-issued on 6 vinyl LPs, featuring new liner notes. Nicky Ryan confirmed that the trio were working on a new album and floated the possibility of a book based on the trio's thoughts regarding the ''Oceans'' tracks. Enya's note, in Irish, read 'Beidh muid ag teacht le chéile gan mhoile', which roughly translates to 'We will meet again soon.' Roma Ryan also updated the liner notes with several newer thoughts about the songs, constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The first constellati ...
s, and poetry.
On 19 September 2023, a watch party video for the 35th anniversary of ''Watermark'' was also presented. Alongside this, vinyl LPs of ''Watermark'' and a Dolby Atmos upmixed audio for "Orinoco Flow" were also released.
On 20 February 2025, Enya was announced on the RTÉ Gold Breakfast Show as the winner of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album, namely her 1988 album ''Watermark.''
Enya's award was celebrated at Vicar Street, Dublin, in the late hours of 6 March 2025. As Enya was not there in-person for the award, Priscilla Kotey, managing director
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
of Warner Music Ireland, read out Enya's speech on her behalf.
In May 2025, a photo featuring Enya in attendance at a wedding
A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...
ceremony
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin .
Religious and civil ...
was made public, with her sister Moya also attending.
Enya's latest appearance has relevance to her career, as Enya's outfit (pictured) was previously worn for her 2016 performance of Orinoco Flow in Jap
,
and her live US performance of her 2015 song Echoes in Ra
.
Artistry
Musical style
Enya has cited her musical foundations as 'the classics", church music
Church music is a genre of Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn.
History
Early Christian musi ...
, and "Irish reels and jigs'[ with a particular interest in ]Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and Conducting, conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a compos ...
, a favourite composer of hers.
Enya tentatively mentioned in 1986 that her roots could be Stravinsky, but quickly followed with the notion that silence is what she listened to most besides her mus
.
As well as piano, Enya quickly adapted to playing the synthesiser, a skilled synth player since the early 1980s, equalling the significance of her singing, especially on her breakthrough album ''Watermark''. Since 1982, Enya has recorded music with Nicky Ryan as her producer and arranger, and his wife Roma Ryan as lyricist. During her time with Clannad, Enya chose to work with Nicky as the two shared an interest in vocal harmonies, and Ryan, influenced by The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
and the " Wall of Sound" technique that Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...
pioneered, wanted to explore the idea of "the multi-vocals" for which her music became known. According to Enya, "Angeles" from ''Shepherd Moons'' has roughly 500 vocals recorded individually and layered. Enya performs all vocals and the majority of instruments in her songs, apart from guest musicians (some percussion, guitar, violin, uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...
, cornet
The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...
, and double bass). Her early works, including ''Enya'' and ''Watermark,'' feature numerous keyboard synthesisers including the Yamaha KX88 Master, Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units.
In the early 1980s, th ...
, Oberheim Matrix, Kurzweil K250, Fairlight III, E-mu Emulator II, Akai S900, PPG Wave Computer 360, Roland D-50 (with the "Pizzagogo" patch, famously used in "Orinoco Flow"), and the Roland Juno-60, the latter a particular favourite of hers. Her vast vocal range has been classified as mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...
.
Numerous critics and reviewers classify Enya's albums as new-age music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather tha ...
and she has won four Grammy Awards in the category. However, Enya does not consider her music as part of the genre; 'the only way I can describe it ..it's ''Enya'' music.' Nicky Ryan commented on the new age designation: 'Initially it was fine, but it's really not new age. Enya plays a whole lot of instruments, not just keyboards. Her melodies are strong and she sings a lot. So I can't see a comparison.' In 1988, Enya is believed to have said about New Age music 'it's air, thin air. It's a musical drug' and noted its often spineless nature, dissimilar to the approach taken in her own music. In an interview first published in 2017, Enya said that she 'felt that title ew-Agewas given to any musician whom critics didn't know how to pigeonhole.'
The inspirations behind several of the visuals accompanying Enya's music originate from old artwork. The 1991 music video for "Caribbean Blue", and the 1995 album cover artwork for ''The Memory of Trees'' both feature adapted works from artist Maxfield Parrish. In the 1996 music video for "On My Way Home", scenes of girls lighting paper lanterns to hang in flowery foliage were inspired by John Singer Sargent's painting '' Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose''.
In addition to her native Irish, Enya has recorded songs in languages including English, French, Latin, Spanish, and Welsh. She has recorded music influenced by works from fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
, including the instrumental "Lothlórien" from ''Shepherd Moons''. For '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'', she sang " May It Be" in English and Tolkien's fictional language Quenya
Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in '' Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed l ...
, and she sang " Aníron" in another of Tolkien's fictional languages, Sindarin. ''Amarantine'' and ''Dark Sky Island'' include songs sung in Loxian, a fictional language created by Roma Ryan, that has no official syntax
In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
. Its vocabulary was formed by Enya singing the song's notes to which Roma wrote their phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
spelling.
Enya adopted a composing and songwriting method that has deviated little throughout her career. At the start of the recording process for an album, she enters the studio, forgetting about her previous success, fame, and songs of hers that became hits. 'If I did that,' she said, 'I'd have to call it a day.' She then develops ideas on the piano, keeping note of any arrangement that can be worked on further. During her time writing the music, Enya works a five-day week, takes weekends off, and does not work on her music at home. With Irish as her first language, Enya initially records her songs in Irish as she can express 'feeling much more directly' in Irish than in English. After some time, Enya presents her ideas to Nicky to discuss what pieces work best, while Roma works in parallel to devise lyrics for the songs. Enya considered "Fallen Embers" from ''A Day Without Rain'' a perfect example of the lyrics exactly reflecting the feeling. In 2008, she realised her tendency to write 'two or three songs' during the winter months, work on the arrangements and lyrics the following spring and summer, and then work on the next couple of songs when autumn arrives.
Live performances
Enya says that Warner Music and she 'did not see eye to eye' initially as the label imagined her performing on stage 'with a piano... maybe two or three synthesizer players and that's it.'[ Enya also explained that the time put into her studio albums caused her to 'run overtime', leaving little time to plan for other such projects.][ She also expressed the difficulty in recreating her studio-oriented sound for the stage. In 1996, Nicky Ryan said Enya had received and turned down an offer worth almost £500,000 to perform one concert in Japan. In 2016, Enya spoke about the prospect of a live concert when she revealed talks with the Ryans during her three-year break after ''And Winter Came...'' (2008) to perform a show at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City that would be ]simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
to cinemas worldwide. Before such an event could happen, Nicky suggested that she enter a studio and record "all the hits" live with an orchestra and choir to see how they would sound.[
Enya has performed with live and lip-syncing vocals on various talk and music shows, events, and ceremonies throughout her career, most often during her worldwide press tours for each album. In December 1995, she performed " Anywhere Is" at a Christmas concert at Vatican City with ]Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
in attendance; he later met and thanked her for performing.[ In April 1996, Enya performed the same song during her surprise appearance at the fiftieth birthday celebration for ]Carl XVI Gustaf
Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. Having reigned since 1973, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history.
Carl Gustaf was born during the reign of his paternal great-grandfather, K ...
, the king of Sweden and a fan of Enya's. In 1997, Enya participated in a live Christmas Eve broadcast in London and flew to County Donegal afterward to join her family for their annual midnight Mass choral performance, in which she participates each year. In March 2002, she performed " May It Be" with an orchestra at the year's Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
s/Oscars
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...
ceremony. Enya and her sisters performed as part of the local choir Cór Mhuire in July 2005 at St. Mary's church in Derrybeg during the annual Earagail Arts Festival.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Enya'' (1986) (reissued in 1992 as ''The Celts'')
* ''Watermark'' (1988)
* '' Shepherd Moons'' (1991)
* '' The Memory of Trees'' (1995)
* '' A Day Without Rain'' (2000)
* ''Amarantine'' (2005)
* '' And Winter Came...'' (2008)
* '' Dark Sky Island'' (2015)
Compilation albums
* '' Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya'' (1997)
* '' The Very Best of Enya'' (2009)
Original soundtracks (film)
* ''The Frog Prince'' (1985)
* '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' (2001)
* '' Themes from Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' (2001)
Box sets and exclusive releases
*
Moonshadows
' (1991)
* '' A Box of Dreams'' (1997; vinyl re-release 2023)
*
The Video Collection
' (2001)
* '' Only Time: The Collection'' (2002)
* '' Sounds of the Season: The Enya Collection'' (2006, re-released for streaming
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
in 2019 as ''Christmas Secrets'')
Personal life
Known for her private lifestyle alongside the music, Enya said in the mid-1990s, 'The music is what sells. Not me, or what I stand for... that's the way I've always wanted it.' In a German interview from 2005, Enya stated 'I have always been shy. In former times, I wasn’t happy with that, but today I accept it and live my life after it. And I dare to express something private like emotions in my music and make it visible for the public.' Enya later mentioned in 2008 that 'it’s more important to have my private life and freedom than come out and argue about how I’m seen', regarding it as 'a small disadvantage in trying to retain my privacy. I can live with it.'
She has not married and has no children, but has many nieces and nephews and is considered an aunt to the Ryans' two daughters, having shared their Artane home for almost a decade. In 1991, she said, 'I'm afraid of marriage because I'm afraid someone might want me because of who I am instead of because they loved me... I wouldn't go rushing into anything unexpected, but I do think a great deal about this.' Press often alluded to a relationship ending for Enya in 1997, and that around this time she was considering taking time out of music to have a family. Enya found she was putting pressure on herself over the matter and has 'gone the route hewanted to go' after all.
Enya has identified herself as ' more spiritual than religious' and has said that she sometimes prays, but prefers 'going into churches when they're empty'. Though her political stances are rarely disclosed, in 1988 she stated that 'there is money in Ireland but it's not fairly divided. Generations-old potentates and politician
A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
s have reduced the whole nation to beggary.'
As a result of injury from a car crash
A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...
in Dublin in 1997, Enya recalled that 'it took a lot of work to get my body back to singing. It was traumatic and shocking, but as a result I became more aware of my health and stronger as a person.' This occurred several weeks before the fatal car crash in Paris that took the life of Princess Diana. In November 1997, Enya mentioned upon news of her contributing to Diana's tribute album, 'I met Lady Diana twice and the second time we met she told me that my composition "Watermark" was a favourite melody of hers.' Enya's track "Watermark" was included on the end-of-year artist compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...
, ''Diana, Princess of Wales: Tribute''.
At an auction in 1997, Enya spent £2.5 million on a 157-year-old Victorian listed castellated mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
in Killiney. Formerly known as ''Victoria Castle'' and ''Ayesha Castle'', the house was renamed by Enya as Manderley Castle after the house featured in Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Gerald du Maurier, Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her gra ...
's 1938 novel ''Rebecca
Rebecca () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical tradition, Rebecca's father was Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, also called Aram-Naharaim. Rebecca's brother was Laban (Bi ...
'' . Prior to moving into the castle, Enya was believed to have resided in London, and spent time there throughout the 2000s. She spent several years renovating the castle, and installing considerable security
Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...
measures because of threats from stalkers. The improvements covered gaps in the house's outer wall, installed new solid timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
entrance gates and iron railings, and brought the surrounding of stone wall up to a new height of . In late 2005, the property had two security breaches; during one incident, two people attacked and tied up one of her housekeepers before stealing several items. Enya alerted police by raising an alarm from her safe room. Enya oversaw most of the interior design (decorations and furnishings of her castle) as she was 'not going to trust that to anyone else.' Enya also has an autographed picture of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and Conducting, conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a compos ...
in her home. Enya later bought a home in the south of France, also close in location to the home of U2 singer Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
, near Èze
Èze (; ; ) is a seaside commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera, 8.5 km (5.2 mi) to the northeast of Nice and 4.5 km (2.7 ...
. She spent time renovating it to a more contemporary style than the Victorian style of her castle home.
Enya recalled reading books in her youth such as ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the Malory Towers
''Malory Towers'' is a series of six novels by English author Enid Blyton. The series is based on a girls' boarding school that Blyton's daughter attended, Benenden School, which relocated during World War II to the Hotel Bristol in Newquay, ...
series by Enid Blyton, prior to going to boarding school herself. Enya mentioned her favourite books being ''Rebecca'' by Daphne du Maurier and ''The Picture of Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...
'' by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
. Enya has shown admiration for the literary works of both Wilde and J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
. She has also stated that she collects first editions of books.
Enya has mentioned watching operas, such as ''Madame Butterfly'' at the Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...
, especially as she frequently travels to Australia to visit her sister and other relatives, occasionally getting noticed 'at the most obscure places' she added in 2008. She also likes watching classic black-and-white films, especially those directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
. She is also drawn to watching crime drama
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
s or period drama
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...
series, such as ''Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...
,'' and ''Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...
,'' saying 'myself, Nicky, and Roma are huge fans of ''Breaking Bad''. We just didn't miss an episode.'
Enya met Sting at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. The band's 1983 single Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for ei ...
is one of Enya's favourite songs, and the first album she got was the 1979 album '' Reggatta de Blanc''.
As well as music, Enya has expressed interest in happenings of other areas of the arts, such as dancing, and painting. As of 2000, Enya had collected artwork by Irish artists in particular, including Jack Butler Yeats, Louis le Brocquy and the British artist Albert Goodwin. She also likes to paint
Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...
, excelling in watercolours and landscape painting from a young age. However, Enya has been reluctant to share her artwork publicly: 'it shows too much of myself. If it is included in a song, it’s less a problem for me' as mentioned in 2005. In a Spanish interview in 2016, Enya mentioned that her painting is 'something very personal. I share my thoughts when composing music but I prefer painting to stay private, at least for a few years.'
Recognition and legacy
Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist and one of the most influential vocalists of all time. At the family pub Leo's Tavern, memorabilia that celebrates musical achievements of Enya and her siblings, notably those in Clannad, are displayed across the walls inside. Enya is admired by, and has influenced a number of artists from several genres, including Aurora
An aurora ( aurorae or auroras),
also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
, Weyes Blood
Natalie Laura Mering (born June 11, 1988), known professionally as Weyes Blood (pronounced , like "wise blood"), is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her o ...
, FKA Twigs
Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musica ...
, Grimes
Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. The visuals in her videos are elabora ...
, Adam Young, Cynthia Erivo
Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo ( ; born 8 January 1987) is a British actress and singer. Known for her work on both stage and screen, she is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Cynt ...
, and Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...
, who declared in a television interview: 'One of my biggest usical influencesis Enya.' In 2016, '' Sunday Times Rich List'' estimated her fortune at £91 million, making her part of their Top 50 millionaire musicians in Britain and Ireland. According to ''Billboard'', Enya is one of the all-time highest-charted Irish acts on U.S charts, and is one of the highest-certified music artists by album units in the U.S. ''Billboard'' Mark Dezzani commented in 1997, that she popularized conventional pop melodies and ethereal ethnic music, while ''Audio'' magazine credited her for helping popularize the " New Celtic" sound. Enya was described by National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
's ''Ireland'' (2022) book, as the 'Queen of ambient Celtic lullabies.'
In Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books.
History
20th century
Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen Wheeler, Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 19 ...
's 2024 description of Donegal, the county in Ireland that Enya is from, Donegal was described by the Destination Editor as the 'wild child of Ireland', a likely reference to the single " Wild Child" by Enya in 2000. Two of Enya's albums, ''Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya'' (1997) and ''Themes from Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' (2001) have sold over a million copies in Japan, the latter a soundtrack of Enya's hits from 1986 to 2000 that was included in the Japanese film ''Calmi Cuori Appassionati''.
Enya receiving the RTÉ Choice Music Prize for Classic Album in 2025 is testament to her lasting significance in Irish music and beyond.
The BBC produced a compilation of archive footage,
Enya at the BBC
' which first aired 15th March 2025. It recognises Enya as an artist with a noteworthy music repertoire and legacy.
In early 2025, Enya was announced as the winner of the 2025 RTÉ Choice Music Prize's Classic Irish Album, with her 1988 album ''Watermark''. The announcement of her award was soon followed by Enya's statement: 'I am delighted to win the RTÉ Choice Music Classic Album Prize. ''Watermark'' has a special place in my heart - it was my second album and really launched my career internationally. It is wonderful that people are still discovering it today and it's an honour to be chosen for this prize recognising Irish music.' In Enya's winning speech, read out on her behalf, she expressed her excitement to have been able to make ''Watermark'', and how she was 'so delighted that it has stood the test of time, and still resonates with so many people around the world.
Honorary degrees and namings
In 1991, a minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
first discovered in 1978, 6433 Enya, was named after her. In June 2007, she received an honorary PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
from the National University of Ireland, Galway, for her contributions to music. A month later, she also received another honorary doctorate, a DLitt from Ulster University. In 2017, a newly discovered species of fish, '' Leporinus enyae'', found in the Orinoco
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...
River drainage area, was named after Enya, in reference to her song, "Orinoco Flow".
See also
* Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)
* ''Watermark (''1988 album)
* Only Time
* ''A Day Without Rain'' (2000 album)
* List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
* List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 1990s
* List of highest-certified music artists in the United States
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
Enya.com redirect
to Warner Music page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enya
1961 births
Living people
Musicians from Gweedore
Irish women singer-songwriters
Irish women pianists
Celtic fusion musicians
20th-century Irish composers
20th-century Irish pianists
20th-century Irish singer-songwriters
20th-century Irish women singers
20th-century Irish women composers
20th-century women pianists
21st-century Irish composers
21st-century Irish pianists
21st-century Irish singer-songwriters
21st-century Irish women singers
21st-century Irish women composers
21st-century women pianists
Echo (music award) winners
Grammy Award winners
Irish folk singers
Irish pop singers
Irish women composers
Irish-language singers
Avant-pop music
Ivor Novello Award winners
World Music Awards winners
Warner Music Group artists
Watercolorists
New-age musicians
Latin-language singers of Ireland
Women in electronic music
1980s in Irish music
1990s in Irish music
2000s in Irish music
2010s in Irish music
2020s in Irish music