Enya

Irish singer Enya's smooth mix of ethereal vocals (in either English or Gaelic) and new age ambience has made her music popular around the world. She is among Ireland’s best-selling solo artists, having sold over 70 million albums.

Enya was brought up in a musical background, with most of her family involved in music in one way or another. Her siblings formed the group Clannad in the 70s; they helped to take Irish folk music and language to the world. Enya worked with Clannad on two albums, providing backing vocals and playing keyboards on early 80s releases Crann Úll and Fuaim. In 1982, she and producer/manager Nicky Ryan left the band to set up the Aigle record label which provided the platform for her solo career. Prior to the release of her first album, Enya worked on the track “Never Get Old” for Sinéad O’Connor’s debut album, The Lion and the Cobra.

In 1987 she released her debut, Enya. The Top 20 album featured music she had been commissioned to write for the BBC TV series The Celts. The album was later remixed and re-released by Warner as The Celts. (P. Diddy sampled a track, “Boadicea”, for the Mario Winans single “I Don’t Wanna Know”, and so the Celtic folk musician found herself at No.2 on the Hot R&B/hip-hop charts in 2004.)

1988’s Watermark would prove to be her big breakthrough: promoted by the single “Orinoco Flow”, the album went on to sell eight million copies. This set the tone for subsequent releases which were hugely commercially successful. The 1991 release Shepherd Moons won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, as did her next three releases, Memory of Trees, A Day Without Rain and Amarantine.

Enya’s music has proven popular in the cinema, and has appeared in films including The Frog Prince, L.A. Story, Toys and Far and Away.