Born Eithne Ni Bhraonain (pronounced Enya Brennan) on May 17, 1961, in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland; daughter of Lee O. Bhraonain, a dance band leader, and Maira, a music teacher; has eight siblings. Addresses: Record company--Reprise, 3300 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, CA 91505-4694.

Enya has become a top-selling artist by transforming her background in classical music training and her roots in Irish folk music into a unique Celtic/New Age blend. Ethereal melodies and pulsing keyboard-driven rhythms are hallmarks of her sound, evidenced on such signature tunes as "Orinoco Flow," "Caribbean Blue," "Anywhere Is" and "Only Time." In spite of the fact she has never gone on a concert tour of her own and rarely gives interviews, Enya has sold more than 44 million albums, becoming Ireland's best-selling solo artist ever.

Enya was born in Gweedore, County Donegal (the Gaelic-speaking region of Ireland) in 1961. Her first language was Gaelic, as was her birthname, Eithne Ni Bhraonain (pronounced Enya Brennan). She was the fifth of nine children in a musical family. Her father was a dance band leader, her mother was a music teacher, and three of her siblings along with two of her uncles formed the popular Irish folk group Clannad. Enya studied classical piano and joined Clannad in 1980 when the band decided to incorporate keyboards into their traditional music.

In 1982, Enya left Clannad to follow her own inspiration. Nicky Ryan, who had been managing Clannad, stopped working with the band at the same time. Enya moved to Dublin and lived with Ryan and his wife Roma for the next six years. While living with them she practiced classical piano and began composing music. Roma Ryan sent out tapes of Enya's pieces to a number of film producers. Enya's solo career started when one of those producers, David Putnam, commissioned her to write the score for his 1985 film, The Frog Prince.

At the time that Enya began scoring The Frog Prince, she had no desire to write lyrics. Roma, however, had a great love of poetry and had a natural ability to tune into the meaning of Enya's music. "I don't even have to tell her what the song is about," Enya told Jeremy Helligar of People, "She just knows what I'm trying to say. She's able to capture that emotion with the lyrics. It works out well." So began the long relationship of Enya as musical composer and Roma Ryan as lyricist.

Enya followed with a score for a BBC television series The Celts. She and Nicky Ryan began developing a compositional method, using multilayered keyboards and vocals, although they came to their work with very different musical influences. "With me it was Irish traditional music," Enya told David Gritten of the Los Angeles Times, "...With him it was the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. And I can hear that combination of all those influences in the music." The Celts attracted the attention of David Dickins, chairman of Warner Music UK who signed Enya as an artist. "When I first heard her, I fell for her totally," Dickins told Gritten, "But I signed her as an artist without any commercial potential at all.... Other companies were signing up bands in the style of U2 and here we were, signing this ethereal Irish singer." Music from this project was released on the album Enya by Atlantic Records.

With the release of Watermark in 1988, Enya found her audience. The single "Orinoco Flow" (named after Venezuela's Orinoco River and widely referred to in the United States as "Sail Away") became a Number One hit in Great Britain. The song's richly textured production and ear-catching chorus established the form that Enya would follow in subsequent releases. Geffen Records released Watermark in the United States the following year and quickly won new American fans for Enya. By this time, the Ryans had moved to a new home in Dalkey and built a studio on their grounds. Enya moved to Killiney, about 20 minutes walking distance away. Watermark had been painstakingly developed over two years in the Ryans's home studio. Paul Evans described Watermark as a "remarkable record" in The Rolling Stone Album Guide, and "Orinoco Flow" as a song that achieves "nearly mythic resonance" Songs from the album were featured in the film soundtracks of L.A. Story and Green Card.

In 1991, Shepherd Moons debuted at Number One in Great Britain and went on to surpass sales of Watermark.However, some critics weren't convinced that it was up to the caliber of her first album; Paul Evans of The Rolling Stone Album Guide,described it as "a bit of a comedown." Nevertheless, the album's single "Caribbean Blue" reached number 79 in the United States and "Book of Days" received exposure on the soundtrack to the film Far and Away. And in 1993 Shepherd Moonswon the Grammy for Best New Age Album.

Enya saw her reclusiveness as a necessary part of making her albums. "Going back to Watermark, I think we cut ourselves off from the music scene because we felt it would be a negative influence," she told Gritten. "Our music was very different, and we'd had no success at that stage, so we deliberately didn't seek or want anyone else's opinion. Even now I think if I got caught up in a glitzy entertainment world, my music would suffer. I just feel that I have more to say with my music than by going on a series of talk shows."

Enya's now familiar style continued to resonate with her fans. Her 1995 album The Memory of Trees,featured the song "Anywhere Is," an upbeat tune which reached number seven as a single in Britain. Washington Post'sMike Joyce wrote of the album, "The vocal textures add to the glistening luster and the rolling momentum of the opening (and title) track; they create the illusion of a one-woman choir on several ballads; and they make the occasional leap from English to Gaelic verse as seamless as it is enchanting." Elysa Gardner of Rolling Stonewrote, "Even the instrumental tracks seem to carry soothing hidden messages." However, Enya's work did draw some detractors as well. "Enya has her critics, who call her work soporific, pretty, tinkling, essentially little more than a superior form of elevator music..., " Gritten wrote. "Even neutral observers find it remarkable that she had achieved so much success."

Enya and Nicky Ryan made albums with a distinctive sound by going beyond standard instrumentation. They sometimes invested days in sonic experiments that didn't work. Overdubs often consisted of odd combinations of sounds, such as piano, synthesizer, harp and violin, layered over one another as a painter might do with paint. Reverb has been a key element. Layering of sounds sometimes required Enya to play the same part dozens of times. And some songs have the effect of 100 Enya voices singing in chorus.

In 1997, Enya released Paint the Sky With Stars, a greatest-hits compilation. Billboard's Larry Flick wrote of "Only If," one of the songson the album, "Enya delivers yet another great single. 'Only If' is as peaceful and memorably melodic as any other of her inspirational, soul-purifying songs, which traditionally are etched with a unique combination of background voices with drums and violin lines. It's a combination that makes all her songs seem antique, almost, if not angelic." J.D. Considine of the Los Angeles Times commented: "What makes Enya's albums so entrancing is their ability to articulate emotion, to take the listener deep within the heart of her melodies. For all their quiet, there's often tremendous depth to the songs...."

Paint the Sky With Stars was Enya's only diversion during the five years it took to complete her next album, A Day Without Rain. As before, she collaborated exclusively with Nicky and Roma Ryan. She began by working completely alone. Sequestered in her castle home she sat at her piano and let her emotions and ideas flow freely. "I just let it happen. I like to treat [songwriting] like it takes me on a journey," Enya told Los Angeles Times's Considine. She went on to say that writing the melody is "the most exciting moment" of the process. Her next step was to play her instrumentals for the Ryans. "I'm quite anxious at this point," she told Billboard's Flick, "because it really is an act of laying your soul bare. The good thing is that there's tremendous trust between the three of us. We are always as gentle with each other as we are honest." Roma Ryan then began adding lyrics to the melodies, at the same time Nicky and Enya began the long process of developing the arrangements.

Some fans find it hard to understand why Enya stays so far out of the limelight. For most performers, the kind of success Enya has experienced would have been accompanied with non-stop interviews, TV appearances and touring. But Enya's personal life remains a mystery to her fans. "People don't know what my everyday life is about because I keep that to myself," Enya told People's Helligar, "There are lots of artists who are bigger than their music, but for me it's the other way about."

Enya has sold 44 million albums since 1988's Watermark. "Enya is one of those artist who was not created by the record industry; she's an artist in the purest sense of the word," Reprise's Howie Klein told Billboard'sFlick. "Her music appeals to people across the spectrum. We're devoted to maintaining her fan base and elevating her to even greater levels of success."

Although Enya has never taken her music on the road, both she and Ryan considered the possibility after the release of 2000's A Day Without Rain.Ryan told Billboard's Flick, "The issue is--and has always been--finding an effective and realistic way of mounting the music in a live setting without compromising its integrity." For Enya's part she says the idea of a live performance "is quite exciting." As she told Flick, "I've long wanted to be in the same room as the fans and share my music."

by Barry Alfonso

Enya's Career

Joined relatives in Irish band Clannad, 1980; left to pursue solo career and form musical partnership with Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, 1982; composed score for film The Frog Prince, 1985; composed soundtrack for BBC series The Celts, 1987 (album renamed and released as Enya in same year); signed with WEA Records and released Watermark, 1988; Geffen released Watermark in the United States, 1989; music from Watermark featured in the films Green Card and L.A. Story, 1989; Reprise released Shepherd Moons, 1991; contributed to Far and Away film soundtrack; 1992; Enya is reissued as The Celts, 1992; released The Memory of Trees, 1995; released Paint the Sky with Stars, 1997; released A Day Without Rain, 2000.

Enya's Awards

Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), for Shepherd Moons, 1992; Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, NARAS, 1996, for The Memory of Trees.

Famous Works

Recent Updates

December 14, 2005: Enya's album, Amarantine (released November 22, 2005), was certified platinum, having sold one million copies. Source: Billboard.com, www.billboard.com/bbcom/riaa/index.jsp, January 15, 2006.

Further Reading

Sources

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