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Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (anglicised Enya Patricia Brennan; born 17 May 1961), known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. Noted for her modern Celtic music, she is a best-selling Irish solo artist and the second-best-selling Irish musical act overall after the rock band U2.
Born into a musical family and raised in the Irish-speaking area of Gaoth Dobhair, Enya began her career in 1980 when she joined her family's Celtic folk band Clannad. She left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career with Clannad's manager and producer Nicky Ryan and Ryan's wife Roma Ryan as her lyricist. Over the following four years, she developed her sound by combining multitracked vocals and keyboards with elements of musical genres such as Celtic, classical, church, new age, world, pop, and Irish folk.
Enya's first solo projects included soundtrack work for The Frog Prince (1985) and the BBC documentary series The Celts (1987), which was released as her debut album Enya (1987). She signed with Warner Music UK, which granted her considerable artistic freedom and minimal interference. The commercial and critical success of Watermark (1988) propelled her to worldwide fame, helped mostly by the international hit single "Orinoco Flow". This was followed by 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 9/11 attacks. After Amarantine (2005) and And Winter Came... (2008), Enya took a four-year break from music, returning in 2012 to begin work on her eighth album Dark Sky Island (2015).Career
1980–1985: Clannad and early solo career
In 1970, several members of Enya's family formed Clannad, a Celtic folk band. Clannad hired Nicky Ryan as their manager, sound engineer, and producer, and Ryan's future wife, Roma Ryan, as tour manager and administrator. In 1980, after her year at college, Enya decided not to pursue a music degree at university and instead accepted Ryan's invitation to join Clannad, 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 siblings Máire, Pól, and Ciarán Brennan, and twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. She features in their follow-up, Fuaim (1981), as a full-time member. Nicky 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." This sparked discussions between the two on layering vocals to create a "choir of one", a concept inspired by Phil Spector's Wall of Sound technique that had interested them.During a Clannad tour in 1982, Nicky called for a band meeting to address internal issues that had arisen. 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 disliked being "somebody in the background". The split caused some friction between the parties, but they settled their differences.Nicky suggested to Enya that either she return to Gweedore "with no particular definite future", or live with him and Roma in Artane, Dublin, "and see what happens, musically", which Enya accepted. After their bank denied them a loan, Enya sold her saxophone and gave piano lessons for income. The Ryans used what they could afford to build a recording facility in their garden shed which they named Aigle Studio, after the French word for eagle. They also rented the 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 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. Her first composition was "An Aibhse Uaighneach", Irish for "The Lonely Ghost". During this time Enya played the synthesiser on Ceol Aduaidh (1983) by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy, and declined an offer by Mike Oldfield to sing on his single "Moonlight Shadow".Enya's first solo endeavour arrived in 1983 when she recorded two piano instrumentals, "An Ghaoth Ón Ghrian", Irish for "The Solar Wind", and "Miss Clare Remembers". Both were recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin and released on Touch Travel (1984), a limited-release cassette of music from various artists on the 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, which was televised for RTÉ'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, playing 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, who liked the tape and offered Enya to compose the soundtrack to his upcoming romantic comedy film, The Frog Prince (1984). Enya scored nine pieces for the film; later, against her wishes, the pieces were rearranged and orchestrated by Richard Myhill, except for two pieces in which she sang, "The Frog Prince" and "Dreams". The words to "Dreams" were penned by Charlie McGettigan. The film editor Jim Clark said the rearrangements were necessary as Enya found it difficult to compose to the picture. Released in 1985, the album is the first commercial release that credits her as "Enya". Nicky Ryan suggested the phonetic spelling of her name, thinking 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 Ordinary Man (1985) by Christy Moore.
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