Enya Irish Singer Born 1961 in Gaoth Dobhair

Early life

Enya was born Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin on 17 May 1961 in Dore, in the Irish-speaking district of Gaoth Dobhair, known in English as Gweedore, in County Donegal. She was the sixth of nine children in a family of musicians. Her mother, Máire, known as Baba, was a teacher and amateur musician who ran a church choir, and her father, Leo, led a showband and later ran a pub in Meenaleck. Irish was her first language, and she learned English at primary school.

Music was part of her life from an early age. She entered singing competitions at the Feis Ceoil festival as a small child, took her first piano lessons at four, and sang in her mother's choir. At eleven she moved to a convent boarding school at Loreto College in Milford, where her grandfather paid the fees. There she developed an interest in classical music, art, Latin and watercolour painting.

Career

Enya began her professional career in 1980, when she joined the family band Clannad on keyboards and vocals at the invitation of its manager, Nicky Ryan. She appears on the albums Crann Úll and Fuaim and sings lead on the song "An tÚll". Her place in the group has been described in different ways by those involved, and she herself has said she was never a full member. In 1982 she left with Nicky Ryan and his partner Roma to pursue her own music. The three formed a working partnership: Nicky acted as producer and arranger, Roma as lyricist, and Enya as composer and performer. They settled in Dublin and built a small recording studio, which they named Aigle Studio.

Her first major commission was the soundtrack for the 1985 film The Frog Prince, the earliest release to credit her simply as Enya. Soon afterward the BBC asked her to write music for the television documentary series The Celts. A selection from that score became her debut album, Enya, released in the United Kingdom in 1987. She then signed to Warner Music UK, which gave her room to work without fixed deadlines.

Her second album, Watermark (1988), made her known worldwide, largely through the single "Orinoco Flow", which spent three weeks at number one in the United Kingdom. Shepherd Moons followed in 1991 and reached number one in the UK. The Memory of Trees came in 1995, and the compilation Paint the Sky with Stars in 1997. Her fifth studio album, A Day Without Rain (2000), included "Only Time", a song whose use in American broadcasts after the September 2001 attacks brought it a large new audience. She released a version of the single that autumn and gave its proceeds to a fund for firefighters' families. It became her highest-charting single in the United States, reaching number 10 on the Hot 100.

In 2001 she wrote and performed two songs, "Aníron" and "May It Be", for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, working with the film's composer Howard Shore. She sang "May It Be" with an orchestra at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony. Later albums were Amarantine (2005), which includes songs in the invented language Loxian, And Winter Came... (2008), and Dark Sky Island (2015). The compilation The Very Best of Enya appeared in 2009. In 2013 "Only Time" returned to the charts after being used in a television advertisement.

Her music is built on layered vocals, keyboards and elements drawn from Celtic, classical and church traditions. Critics often place it in the new age category, although she has said she does not consider it part of that genre. She has recorded in several languages, including Irish, English, Latin, French, Spanish and Welsh.

Recognition

Enya won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for Amarantine in 2006, and she has won that award four times in total, the first for Shepherd Moons in 1993. She also received the Echo Pop Award for the Hit of the Year in 2002. "May It Be" earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2002. In 1998 she, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan received the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement.

She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Galway and Ulster University, both in 2007. The minor planet 6433 Enya was named after her in 1991. In 2025 her album Watermark won the Classic Irish Album award at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.

Personal life

Enya is known for keeping her private life out of the public eye. She has not married and has no children. In 1997 she bought a castellated mansion in Killiney, County Dublin, which she renamed Manderley Castle after the house in Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. She enjoys painting, particularly watercolours and landscapes, though she has said she prefers to keep her paintings private.