Description
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan ; born 17 May 1961), known mononymously as Enya , is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician, noted for her modern Celtic music. Enya is the best- selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling Irish music act overall after the rock band U2.
Born into a musical family and raised in the Irish-speaking area of Gaoth Dobhair, Enya (as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin) began her musical career in 1980, playing alongside her family's Celtic folk band Clannad. She left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career, working with the former Clannad manager and producer, Nicky Ryan, and his partner Roma, as their lyricist. Over the following four years, Enya developed her sound by combining multitracked vocals and keyboards with elements of musical genres such as Celtic, classical, church, jazz, new age, world, pop, and Irish folk.
Enya's first solo projects included two instrumental compositions for the Touch Travel (1984) cassette compilation, soundtrack and vocal work for The Frog Prince (1985) and a body of work for the BBC documentary series The Celts (1986). A selection of her pieces for The Celts were released as her debut album, Enya (1987). She later signed with Warner Music UK, which granted her considerable artistic freedom and minimal interference. The success of Watermark (1988) propelled Enya to worldwide fame, helped mostly by the international hit single "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)". 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 studio album Dark Sky Island (2015). According to her sister Moya, Enya was recording music as of 2019.