Enya (born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin; Irish pronunciation: [ˈɛnʲə nʲiː ˈvˠɾˠiːn̪ˠaːnʲ], anglicised as Enya Brennan; 17 May 1961) is an Irish celtic singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter.

 

Enya 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 1987 BBC series The Celts. Shortly afterwards, her 1988 album Watermark propelled her to further international fame and she became known for her distinctive sound, characterised by voice-layering, folk melodies, synthesised backdrops and ethereal reverberations. She has performed in 10 languages.

Enya continued to enjoy steady success during the 1990s and 2000s; her 2000 album A Day Without Rain sold 15 million copies, and became the top selling new age album of the 2000s in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.  She received the world's best-selling female award at the World Music Awards in 2001. She is Ireland's best-selling solo musician. Her record sales stand at more than 75 million worldwide, including over 26.5 million in album sales in the US, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Her work has earned her four Grammy Awards and an Academy Award nomination.

Enya was born and raised in Gweedore, County Donegal, in the northwest corner of Ireland. She is part of an Irish-speaking, Catholic musical family, the sixth of nine children. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.  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.  In 1982, shortly before Clannad became internationally renowned 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".

Musical style and other projects

As a musical group Enya represents a partnership 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, except Irish, in which Enya will render the lyrics herself. Enya (usually with Nicky Ryan) performs all instruments, and vocals in her pieces unless specified. Although there are certain pieces where acoustic instruments are featured, almost all sounds of her pieces are created by a synthesiser. Her trademark sound is achieved by layering the voices of Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan, & herself many times. According to Enya, Angeles, the fifth track on her album Shepherd Moons has about 500 layered vocal tracks.

Enya's vocal range is mezzo-soprano.  Her signature sound uses simple arrangements with extensive multi-tracking vocals. The vocals are performed individually, and are then layered together to form a virtual choir, although all the voices are performed by Enya herself, along with Nicky & Roma Ryan. In "Cursum Perficio" of the album Watermark, Enya reaches a C an octave below middle C. Later in the piece, she sings a high A-flat above the treble clef.

On the album Amarantine Enya sings in Japanese and Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan. The vocabulary is formed by Enya singing the notes to which Roma provides the phonetic writing. There is no official syntax for Loxian. While most of her songs are sung in English, some of Enya's songs are sung entirely in Irish or Latin. 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 several songs relating to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including 1991's "Lothlórien" (instrumental), and 2001's "May It Be" (sung in English and Quenya), and "Aníron" (in Sindarin)—the latter two appearing in Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and on its soundtrack album. "May It Be" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Enya's performances are "semi-live", using playback music and singing. She has given live performances on various television shows, events and ceremonies (her most recent appearance was in Gweedore 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.[citation needed] She does not classify her music as belonging to the new-age genre. When asked what genre she would classify her music as belonging to, she would reply, "Enya".

Personal life

In 1997, Enya bought a castle in Killiney, south of Dublin, for £2.5million, and named it Manderley after the house in her favourite book, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Beginning with Watermark, Enya began to attract the attention of stalkers, several of whom succeeded in breaking into her castle and attacking some of the staff.  As a result, Enya spent an estimated £250,000 on security measures for her home. In 1996, a man who had been seen in Dublin wearing her photograph around his neck stabbed himself after being ejected from her parents' pub in County Donegal.

In 2006, Enya made it to the number three spot in the ranks of wealthy Irish entertainers with an estimated fortune of €109 million (£75 million or US$165 million), and number 95 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the 250 Wealthiest Irish People.  "My influences are with Irish music, church music and classical music," she said in a 1997 interview.  

In addition to performing for Pope John Paul II, Enya participated in a live broadcast on British television for Christmas Eve in 1997, before she flew home to County Donegal to join her family at midnight Mass.  She still sings in her mother's choir every Christmas at midnight Mass, at St. Mary's Church.

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