Enya

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Enya
Enya, 1991
Enya, 1991
Background information
Birth name Eithne Ní Bhraonáin
Born 17 May 1961 Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal, Ireland
Genre(s) New Age Music, Instrumental, Soundtrack
Occupation(s) Musician
Years active 1980 - present

Enya, birth name Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin (sometimes presented in the media as the Anglicised Enya Brennan; born 17 May 1961), is the Republic of Ireland's best-selling solo artist and one of Ireland's best known musicians. As a musical group, Enya is a collaboration between three people: Enya herself, who composes and performs the music; Nicky Ryan, who produces the albums, and Roma Ryan, who writes the lyrics in various languages. Enya is an approximate transcription of how Eithne is pronounced in her native Gaelic. Enya is one of the biggest selling female artists in history, and was the world's biggest selling female artist of 2001 and 2002. She has been unofficially ranked as the 12th biggest-selling female artist in the world in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Musical upbringing

Enya on the cover of Clannad's 1982 album "Fuaim".
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Enya on the cover of Clannad's 1982 album "Fuaim".

Enya was born in Gweedore, County Donegal, in Ireland in 1961 to a musical family, the fourth youngest of nine children. Her grandparents were in a band that played throughout Ireland, her father was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band before opening a pub, and her mother played in a dance band and later taught music at the Gweedore Comprehensive School. Enya has four brothers and four sisters, several of whom formed the band An Clann As Dobhair in 1968. They renamed the band Clannad in the 1970s.

In 1980, Enya joined Clannad, the band composed of her siblings Máire (Moya), Pól, and Ciarán and twin uncles Noel and Padraig Duggan. Enya played the keyboard and provided backing vocals on their albums Crann Úll (1980) and Fuaim (1982). 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.

[edit] Solo career

Enya, working with Nicky and his wife Roma, recorded two solo instrumental songs called "An Ghaoth Ón Ghrian" ("The Solar Wind") and "Miss Clare Remembers" that were released on the 1983 album Touch Travel. 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 Gaelic reading of Psalms 91:11-13 on the song "Never Get Old".

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. The song "Boadicea" 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 US, when it peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in 2004).

Watermark, Enya's breakthrough album.
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Watermark, Enya's breakthrough album.

Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career in 1988 with the album Watermark, which featured the hit song "Orinoco Flow" (sometimes known as "Sail Away"). "Orinoco Flow" topped the charts in the United Kingdom, and the album sold eight million copies.

Three years later, she followed with another hit album, Shepherd Moons, which sold ten 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"[1]. "Book Of Days" was featured prominently in the movie Far and Away.

In 1992 a remastered version of the Enya album was released as The Celts including a longer, modified version of "Portrait (Out of the Blue)". Four years after Shepherd Moons, she released the Grammy-winning The Memory of Trees (1995).

In 1997, Enya released her greatest hits collection, Paint The Sky With Stars: The Best of Enya, which featured two new songs. She was offered the chance to compose the score for James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, but declined. Cameron subsequently hired composer James Horner and asked him to adapt Enya's style for his score. The eventual choice of Norwegian vocalist Sissel Kyrkjebø, whose style is similar to Enya's, resulted in work that some sources erroneously credited to Enya. A 1989 recording of Enya singing a Gaelic version of "Silent Night" ("Oíche Chiúin") has been reissued many times 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.

Following a five-year break, she released the Grammy winning A Day Without Rain in 2000 featuring 37 minutes of new material (34 minutes on the US version). After the September 11, 2001 attacks, her song "Only Time" (from A Day Without Rain) was used as a backdrop in many radio and TV reports about the attacks. She initially frowned upon this use, especially when many bootlegged versions of "Only Time" mixed with sound effects from the attack began to appear. She agreed to release a special edition of the song with funds going to the families of victims. Many Enya fans, however, are resentful that her music has been linked with the attacks; an example of this occurred on a 2002 appearance on CNN's Larry King Live when images of battle in Afghanistan were shown on screen as she performed "May It Be", a song with no war connection. This sparked some complaints within Enya's fan community.

Amarantine (2005), Enya's first full-length album in five years.
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Amarantine (2005), Enya's first full-length album in five years.

Enya is self-admittedly a slow worker when it comes to composing music. As a result, fans have had to wait as long as five years between albums. In September 2004, a new song, set to words from a Japanese poem Roma Ryan had written and called "Sumiregusa" ("Wild Violet") was unveiled in Japan as part of an advertising campaign for Panasonic. In announcing the new recording, Warner Music Japan stated that Enya's next album was scheduled for release (in Japan at least) in mid-November. Enya issued a press release on her official Web site on 19 September stating that this was a mistake and no new album was immediately forthcoming.

Enya was awarded the World's Best-Selling Irish Act award at the World Music Awards in London on the 19 November 2006. Also, it was anounced on the 8 December 2006 that Enya was nominated for two Grammy awards in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best New Age Album categories.

[edit] Recent Releases

On November, 2005 a new album, entitled Amarantine, was released.

In 2006, Enya released several Christmas-themed CDs with newly recorded material. On October 10, 2006, Sounds of the Season was released containing six songs: the previously released "Oíche Chiúin" (a.k.a. "Silent Night") and "Amid the Falling Snow", new recordings of the standards "Adeste Fideles" (a.k.a. "Oh Come All Ye Faithful") and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as well as two original songs, "Christmas Secrets" and "The Magic of the Night". This CD was released only in the United States in an exclusive partnership with the NBC television network and the Target department store chain.

In later November two new editions of Amarantine were released. In North America, it was reissued as Amarantine - Special Christmas Edition with a second disc containing the four new Christmas songs previously issued on Sounds of the Season (the original album already had "Amid the Falling Snow" while "Oíche Chiúin" is a recording dating back to 1988 which had already been featured on numerous collections). The UK received a deluxe version of this release (Amarantine - The UK Special Edition) which also included three postcards and a copy of Roma Ryan's book Water Shows the Hidden Heart which is referenced on the original album. Canadian fans could choose from the Special Christmas Edition of Amarantine, or an EP entitled Christmas Secrets which only contained the four new songs.

Coinciding with these releases was the relaunch of Enya's official website on Nov. 2, 2006. On November 16, 2006 Enya mentioned on ITV1's Loose Women that she is working on a new album. There is no schedule for the release.

[edit] Personal life

Enya is a very private person who tries to keep her personal life apart from her musical career, even by spending an estimated €250,000 on security measures for her home, Manderley Castle (named after her favourite book and black and white movie Rebecca), Victoria Road Killiney, County Dublin. Despite this, around mid-August 2005, there were two separate security breaches at Enya's home, and she was present on both occasions (her security system includes a panic room). [1]

In 2006, Enya made it to the number three spot in the ranks of wealthy UK and Irish entertainers with an estimated fortune of €109 million (i.e., £75 million or $136 million). This was enough to take her to number 95 in the Times Richlist 2006 of the 250 Wealthiest Irish People. [2]

[edit] Music

On her latest album, Amarantine, Enya sings in Japanese and Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan. A number of Enya's songs are sung entirely in Irish or Latin, while most of her songs are sung in English. Enya has also sung songs written entirely or partially in Welsh, Spanish, French and even languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien. Enya has performed songs relating to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including 1991's "Lothlórien" (instrumental), 2001's "May It Be" (sung in English and Quenya), and "Aníron" (in Sindarin)—the last two which she composed appearing on the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. "May It Be" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song at the 2002 ceremonies, but it lost to Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. Enya has given several live performances on various television shows, events and ceremonies (her most recent appearance was in Gaoth Dobhair in the summer of 2005, which coincided with a tribute event to the Brennan family that took place in Letterkenny), but she has yet to do a concert. She has said, though, that she would love to do it some day, and would consider it to be a great challenge. Michael Jordan, who won six NBA championship titles with the Chicago Bulls, listened to Enya before his games, picturing his performance in the game as he listened. This was part of his "warm up" routine.[citation needed]

It should be noted that despite the fact that her Grammys were for "Best New Age Album", Enya does not personally classify her music as belonging to the New Age genre.

[edit] Selected discography

For a full listing of albums, singles and chart positions see Enya discography.

[edit] Albums

[edit] DVD Release

Enya: The Video Collection.
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Enya: The Video Collection.

In 2000, Warner Music released Enya: The Video Collection on DVD in Europe and Asia, collecting all her videos from "Orinoco Flow" up to and including "Wild Child", except for the video from "Book of Days", which was replaced by a live TV performance due to licensing complications relating to the video's use of footage from the film Far and Away. This release was a successor to an earlier collection of videos entitled Moonshadows, which was released on VHS and laserdisc in 1992. The DVD release also included interviews and featurettes on the making of two videos.

A North American (Region 1) release of the Video Collection DVD was announced on several occasions during 2000-2001, but did not occur; the reason for which has never been officially stated. At one point it was announced that the release had been delayed in order to allow the inclusion of the video for "May it Be", while the (now defunct) Enya.org fansite reported that a dispute over the sound quality of the release led to it being withdrawn. As of 2005, The Collection is still considered to be "coming soon" by some North American online retailers although bootleg copies from Asia have circulated at the retail level in some parts of Region 1 since 2000. Despite the release of a new CD by Enya in November 2005, the Region 1 edition of the DVD collection remains in limbo and there has been as yet no announcement of an updated DVD release in other parts of the world.

As of 2006, the only official release of an Enya video on DVD in North America has been "May it Be" which was included on the DVD release for The Fellowship of the Ring.

[edit] Misconceptions

Many people incorrectly believe that Enya recorded the song "Adiemus".[citation needed] The song was actually recorded by a band of the same name with vocals of Miriam Stockley. "Adiemus" is often distributed through file sharing networks with erroneous information saying that Enya recorded the song. Another song falsely attributed to Enya through file sharing is the song "Secret World" from Ronan Hardiman's "Solas" album. Similarly, recordings by Loreena McKennitt, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Enigma, and Máire (Moya) Brennan (her sister) have also often been mistakenly identified as Enya recordings, particularly those Sissel recorded for the Enya-like soundtrack to Titanic. There are some musical qualities similar to Enya's in the "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" theme from the game Final Fantasy IV. Many television advertisements have also been known to use music similar in sound and style to Enya's, with the official Enya website's FAQ's covering this point.

The bootleg compilation album Sumiregusa was falsely credited to Enya.

[edit] Trivia

  • The B-Side single "Eclipse" is actually a reversed and modified version of Enya's song "Deireadh An Tuath", from the 1987 album 'Enya'.

[edit] See also

[edit] Similar musical style to 'Enya'

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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