Birth name Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin
Also known as Enya Brennan
Born 17 May 1961 (age 49)
Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland
Genres New Age, Celtic, World
Occupations vocalist, instrumentalist, composer, producer
Years active 1982 - present
Labels WEA, Warner Music UK, Warner Bros. Records UK,
Reprise, Geffen
Associated
acts Clannad, Moya Brennan, Brídín Brennan
Website www.enya.com
Notable instruments
Piano, Synthesizer
Enya (born Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin on 17 May 1961), is an
Irish singer, instrumentalist and composer.
The media sometimes refer to
her by the Anglicized name, Enya Brennan; Enya is an approximate
transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of
the Irish language.
She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her
family band Clannad, before leaving to perform solo. She gained
wider recognition for her music in the 1986 BBC series The Celts.
Shortly afterwards, her 1988 album Watermark propelled her to
further international fame and she became known for her unique sound,
characterised by voice-layering, folk melodies, synthesised backdrops
and ethereal reverberations.
She continued to enjoy steady success during the 1990s and 2000s; her
2000 album A Day Without Rain sold 15 million copies and she
was named the world's best selling female artist of 2001. She is
Ireland's best-selling solo musician and is officially the country's
second-largest musical export after the band U2. Her album sales
stand at 70 million as of 2009, with over 26 million in album sales
in the US. Her work has earned her four Grammy awards and an
Academy Award nomination. She has performed in 10 languages
during her career thus far.
Life and career
1961-1983: Musical upbringing and Clannad
Enya was born and brought up in Gweedore (known in Irish as Gaoth
Dobhair), County Donegal. She is part of an Irish-speaking and musical
family, the sixth of nine children.[10] Her grandparents were in a
band that played throughout Ireland, her father was the leader of the
Slieve Foy Band before opening Leo's Tavern, and her mother played in
a dance band and later taught music at Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair. From
a young age, Enya appeared in many pantomimes onstage at Gweedore's
local theatre and sang with her siblings in her mother's choir at St.
Mary's Catholic church, Derrybeg. She attended Loreto Community
School in Milford, County Donegal and then moved away to attend
college wanting to become a classical pianist, continuing her studies in
music and also studying watercolour painting. Enya has four brothers
and four sisters, several of whom formed the band An Clann As
Dobhar in 1968. They renamed the band Clannad in the 1970s.
In 1980, Enya worked with Clannad, the band composed of her
siblings Máire (Moya), Pól, and Ciarán and twin uncles Noel and
Pádraig Duggan. Enya played the keyboard and provided backing
vocals on their album Crann Úll (1980), although she was not
officially a member of the group until the 1981 release Fuaim, when
she appeared on the cover. During that same year, Enya was also a
member of Ragairne, the band of Altan front-woman Mairéad Ní
Mhaonaigh.[11]
In 1982, shortly before Clannad became famous for "Theme From
Harry's Game", producer and manager Nicky Ryan left the group and
Enya joined him to start her own solo career. Enya then formed her own
recording studio, named "Aigle", which is French for "Eagle".
1984-1987: Career beginnings, The Frog Prince, and The Celts
Enya recorded two solo instrumental pieces called "An Ghaoth Ón
Ghrian" (Irish for "The Solar Wind") and "Miss Clare Remembers" that
were released on the 1984 album Touch Travel.[12] She was first
credited as Enya (as opposed to Eithne) for writing some of the music
for the 1984 movie The Frog Prince, which was released on a
soundtrack album of the same title. Another early appearance on record
followed in 1987, where Enya provided spoken (not sung) vocals on
Sinéad O'Connor's debut album, The Lion and the Cobra. The title of
the album is a partial English translation of Enya's Irish reading of
Psalms 91:13 (KJV: "Thou shalt tread on the lion and the adder...") in
the song "Never Get Old".[citation needed]
Enya was contracted to provide music for the soundtrack of the 1986
BBC television documentary The Celts. The music she produced was
featured on her first solo album, Enya (1987), but it attracted little
attention at the time.[13] The B-Side single "Eclipse" is actually a
reversed and modified version of Enya's song "Deireadh An Tuath",
from this 1987 album Enya.[14] The song "Boadicea", also from this
album, would later be sampled by The Fugees on their single "Ready or
Not" (1996), causing a brief stir because the group neither sought
permission from Enya nor gave her credit initially, and by Mario
Winans, who did give her credit (the Winans track, "I Don't Wanna
Know" which features a rap by P. Diddy and is officially credited to
all three artists, became Enya's highest charting single in the U.S.,
when it peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in 2004).[10]
1988-1999: International breakthrough; Watermark, Shepherd
Moons and The Memory of Trees
Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career in 1988 with the album
Watermark, which featured the hit song "Orinoco Flow" (sometimes
incorrectly known as "Sail Away"). "Orinoco Flow", featuring Jay
Tyree, reported to be named after Orinoco Studios (now Miloco
Studios), where it was conceived, topped the charts in the United
Kingdom, peaked at number 2 in Germany and the Watermark album
sold eleven million copies.[10]
Three years later, she followed with another hit album, Shepherd
Moons, which sold twelve million copies and earned Enya her first
Grammy Award. The songs "On Your Shore" and "Exile" (from
Watermark) and "Epona" (from Enya) were featured in the 1991 film
L.A. Story. "Ebudae" was also featured on the soundtrack to the Robin
Williams film Toys, while the 1990 film Green Card had "River",
"Watermark", and "Storms In Africa".[15] "Book Of Days" was
featured prominently in the movie Far and Away, with an English-
lyric version created for the film then replacing the old Gaelic-
language version on all pressings of the Shepherd Moons album from
1993 onwards. In 1993, her recording of " Marble Halls" from
Shepherd Moons was featured in the Martin Scorsese film, The Age
of Innocence.
In 1992, a re-mastered version of the Enya album was released as The
Celts including a longer, modified version of "Portrait", which was re-
named as "Portrait (Out of the Blue)". Four years after Shepherd
Moons, she released The Memory of Trees (1995), another Top Five
success in both the UK and Germany, as well as her first Top 10 album
in the U.S. Singles released from the album were " Anywhere Is" and
"On My Way Home".
In 1997, Enya released her greatest hits collection, Paint The Sky With
Stars: The Best of Enya, again a Top Five smash in the UK and
Germany, which featured two new songs: "Paint the Sky With Stars"
and "Only If..."; "Only If..." later became a single. ("Only If You
Want To", is an early version of "Only If...". It appears on a
promotional Japanese CD called, The Best of Enya, and does not
include the French lyrics.[16]) She was offered the chance to compose
the score for James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, but declined. A 1989
recording of Enya singing an Irish language version of "Silent
Night" ("Oíche Chiúin") has been reissued over the years, including The
Christmas EP (which otherwise contained several non-holiday related
previously issued recordings by Enya) and the 1997 edition of the
charity album A Very Special Christmas.[citation needed]
Ansett Australia extensively used "Storms in Africa" for promotional
purposes when the airline re-branded itself in the 1990s. The 1992
film Sleepwalkers features "Boadicea" as the film's signature
tune.[citation needed]
