Enya
Enya is Ireland’s best-selling solo artist. She uses percussion, instruments, and vocals in her compositions. She is renowned for using simple arrangements with varied vocals. As a musical group, Enya herself composes and performs the music; Nicky Ryan, produces the records; and Roma Ryan writes the lyrics, often in several languages. Their music is officially the country’s second-largest musical export after the band U2s.
Eithne was born on 17 May 1961 in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland in 1961 in a musical family. Her birth name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (sometimes known as). The name Enya is approximately how Eithne is pronounced in her native language Irish Gaelic. She comes from a musical family. Her grandparents were part of a music band, her father was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band, and her mother played in a dance band and later taught music at the Gweedore Comprehensive School. Eithne has eight siblings (four brothers and four sisters). Her siblings and twin uncles formed a band An Clann As Dobhair in 1968. Nicky Ryan was the band’s producer and manager. They renamed the band as Clannad in the 1970s. Eithne joined the band in 1980. She played the keyboard and provided backing vocals for the band’s albums Cran Ull (1980) and Fuaim (1982).
In 1982, Eithne left the band to start her own solo career and joined Nicky Ryan. She recorded two solo instrumental songs with the help of Nicky and his wife. These songs titled ‘An Ghaoth On Ghrian’ (‘The Solar Wind’) and ‘Miss Clare Remembers’ were released in 1984 as part of the album Touch Travel. Eithne was first credited for writing some of the music for the 1984 movie The Frog Prince. She composed music for the soundtrack of a 1986 television documentary ‘The Celts’. The ‘big break’ in her career came after her album watermark was released in 1988. It featured the hit song ‘Orinoco Flow’ (also called ‘Sail Away’). This song was a chartbuster hit in Britain and eight million copies of the album were sold. Her Studio albums are Enya (1987), Watermark (1988), Shepherd Moons (1991), The Celts (1992) (Re-release of the 1987 album Enya), The Memory of Trees (1995), A Day Without Rain (2000), Amarantine (2005), And Winter Came.. (2008)
Enya has won four Grammy Awards for Best New Age Album: In the year 1993 for Shepherd Moon, in 1997 for The Memory of Trees, In 2002 for A Day Without Rain, and In 2007 for Amarantine. However, she personally does not consider her music as ‘new age’.
In 2000, Warner Music released a DVD which was a collection of all her songs’ videos. It had all of her videos from “Orinoco Flow” right up to “Wild Child”, except for the video from “Book of Days”. On 23 November 2009, Enya came out with her new album which is titled ‘The Very Best of Enya’. It includes all of her hit singles from 1986 to 2008. It contains previously released songs except for one track “Aniron from the The Lord of the Rings.
Her songs are hauntingly unforgettable. She has composed beautiful instrumental tracks which include trance music tracks. She has invested approximately 250,000 Euros in security measures after a couple of crazy fans broke into her castle and attacked her staff. In 1996, a man stabbed himself after he was thrown out of Enya’s parents’ pub in Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Such was her fan following.
- Lovina Raymond
Tags: artist, composer, enya, ireland, music, music composer, musician
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