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Enya (born 17 May 1961), birth name Eithne Ní
Bhraonáin (sometimes seen as the Anglicized Enya
Brennan), is Ireland's best-selling solo musician.
As a musical group, Enya is really three people:
Enya herself, who composes and performs the music;
Nicky Ryan, who produces the records; and Roma
Ryan, who writes the lyrics in  various languages.
Enya is a phonetic approximation of how Eithne is
pronounced in her native Irish language|Irish.

==Biography==
===Musical upbringing===
Eithne was born in Gweedore, County Donegal, in
Republic of Ireland|Ireland in 1961 to a musical
family.  Her grandparents were in a band that
played throughout Ireland; her father was the
leader of the Slieve Foy Band before opening a
pub; and her mother played in a dance band and
later taught music at the Gweedore Comprehensive
School.  Eithne has four brothers and four
sisters, several of whom formed the band An Clann
As Dobhair in 1968 in music|1968. (They renamed
the band Clannad in the 1970s.)

In 1980 in music|1980, Eithne joined Clannad, the
band composed of her siblings Máire
Brennan|Máire, Pól Brennan|Pól, and Ciarán
Brennan|Ciarán and twin uncles Noel Duggan|Noel
and Padraig Duggan. Eithne played the keyboard and
provided backing vocals on their albums Crann Úll
(1980) and Fuaim (1982 in music|1982). In 1982
(shortly before Clannad became famous for "Theme
From Harry's Game"), producer and manager Nicky
Ryan left Clannad and Eithne joined him to start
her own solo career.

===Solo career===
Eithne, working with Nicky and his wife Roma,
recorded two solo instrumental songs called "An
Ghaoth Ón Ghrian" ("The Solar Wind") and "Miss
Clare Remembers" that were released on the 1984 in
music|1984 album Touch Travel.  Eithne was first
credited as Enya for writing some of the music for
the 1984 in film|1984 movie The Frog Prince
(film)|The Frog Prince.  She  was contracted to
provide music for the soundtrack of the 1986
television documentary The Celts.  The music she
produced was featured on her first solo album,
Enya (album)|Enya (1987 in music|1987), but it
attracted little attention at the time. The song
"Boadicea" from this album would later be sampled
by The Fugees (1996 in music|1996), causing a
brief stir because the group neither sought
permission from Enya nor gave her credit
initially, and by Mario Winans, who did give her
credit. (Ironically the Winans track, "I Don't
Wanna Know," which features a rap by P. Diddy and
is offically credited to all three artists, became
Enya's highest charting single in the US, when it
peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in 2004 in
music|2004.)

Enya achieved a breakthrough in her career in 1988
in music|1988 with the album Watermark
(album)|Watermark, which featured the hit song
"Orinoco Flow" (sometimes known as "Sail Away"). 
"Orinoco Flow" topped the charts in Britain, and
the album sold eight million copies.  Three years
later she followed with another hit album:
Shepherd Moons, which sold ten million copies and
earned Enya her first Grammy Award.  Despite
winning Grammys for "Best New Age music|New Age
Album", Enya does not personally classify her
music as belonging to that genre.  Four years
later she released the Grammy-winning The Memory
of Trees (1995 in music|1995).

In 1997 in music|1997 Enya released her greatest
hits collection Paint The Sky With Stars|Paint The
Sky With Stars: The Best of Enya, which featured
two new songs.  She was offered the chance to
compose the score for James Cameron's 1997 in
film|1997 film Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic, but
declined. Cameron subsequently asked composer
James Horner to adapt Enya's style for his score.
The resulting score was so similar to Enya's work
that some sources erroneously credit Enya with the
music.

Following a five year wait, she released A Day
Without Rain in 2000 in music|2000 featuring 34
minutes of new material.  After the September 11,
2001 attacks, her song "Only Time" (from A Day
Without Rain) was used as a backdrop in many radio
and TV reports about the attacks. She initially
frowned upon this use, especially when many
bootlegged versions of "Only Time" mixed with
sound effects from the attack began to appear. She
agreed to release a special edition of the song
with funds going to the families of victims. Many
Enya fans, however, are resentful that her music
has been linked with the attacks; an example of
this occurred on a 2002 in music|2002 appearance
on CNN's Larry King Live when images of battle in
Afghanistan were shown on screen as she performed
"May It Be", a song with no war connection. This
sparked some complaints within Enya's fan
community. 

Enya is self-admittedly a slow worker when it
comes to composing music. As a result, fans have
had to wait as long as five years between albums.
In 2004 in music|2004, Enya was reputedly working
on her next album, but no release date has been
set. In September 2004, a new song called
"Sumiregusa" was unveiled in Japan as part of an
advertising campaign for Panasonic. In announcing
the new recording, Warner Brothers|Warner Music
Japan stated that Enya's next album was scheduled
for release (in Japan at least) in mid-November.
After a brief flurry of excitement among fans,
Enya issued a press release on her official Web
site on 19 September stating that this was a
mistake and no new album is immediately
forthcoming.

Enya's official website in Germany (www.enya.de)
has indicated that a new album may be released in
November 2005 in music|2005 in Germany. Warner
Music Germany confirms this release date. However,
Aigle Music, which is directly owned by Eithne
Brennan and the Ryans, has yet to make an
announcement. As of August 2005, no update has
appeared on Enya's international website
www.enya.com, either, and many fans remain
skeptical given that a previous official
announcement -- that of Warner Music Japan -- has
already proven false.

==Music==
A number of Enya's songs are sung entirely in
Irish language|Irish or Latin, with others
containing the hitherto-mentioned mixed with
English language|English or English by itself.
Roma Ryan has written lyrics in Welsh
language|Welsh, Irish, Latin, Spanish
language|Spanish, and even languages of
Middle-earth|languages created by J. R. R.
Tolkien.

Enya has performed songs relating to J. R. R.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including 1991 in
music|1991's "Lothlórien" (instrumental) and 2001
in music|2001's "May It Be" (sung in English and
Quenya) and "Aníron" (in Sindarin)—the last
two appearing on the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's
film|movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring (film)|The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring. "May It Be" was nominated
for an Academy Award for Best Song at the 2002
ceremonies, but it lost to Randy Newman's "If I
Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.

Enya has given several live performances on
various television shows, events and ceremonies
(her most recent appearance was at a tribute to
the Brennan family which took place in
Letterkenny), but she has yet to do a concert. She
has said, though, that she would love to do it
some day, and considers it to be a great possible
challenge.

===Discography===


====Albums====
*Enya (album)|Enya (1987 in music|1987)
** Two versions of this album were released. When
reissued by Warner Music under the title The
Celts, the original-release track entitled
"Portrait" was replaced with an identical -- but
longer -- piece of music entitled "Portrait (Out
of the Blue)."
*Watermark (album)|Watermark (1988 in music|1988)
** Some versions of this album include an extra
track, "Storms in Africa II."
*Shepherd Moons (1991 in music|1991, won 1992
Grammy for "Best New Age Album")
** There are at least two versions of Shepherd
Moons.  The first release featured a chant version
of the song "Book of Days."  An English-language
version of this song was subsequently used in the
soundtrack of the movie Far_and_Away|Far and Away.
 Coinciding with that all pressings of the album
-- as well as singles and collections -- from
mid-1992 on include the English-language version
in lieu of the original.
*The Celts (1992) (remastered rerelease of the
1987 album Enya)
*The Memory of Trees (1995 in music|1995, won 1996
Grammy for "Best New Age Album")
*Paint The Sky With Stars (1997 in music|1997)
(greatest hits collection with two new tracks)
*A Day Without Rain (2000 in music|2000, won 2001
Grammy for "Best New Age Album")
** Three versions of A Day Without Rain were
released. Aside from the general release in the US
and UK, the Canada|Canadian release included an
additional track, while the Japanese one had two
additional tracks.

In addition, a 1986 in music|1986 soundtrack album
for The Frog Prince (a.k.a. French Lesson)
contains mostly music composed by Enya but not
performed by her; a later CD release added two
previously unreleased vocal tracks by her.

==== Singles ====
Over the years, Enya has released a large number
of CD singles, many of which included bonus tracks
that were not included on any of the albums:
* "I Want Tomorrow" (1987)
* "Orinoco Flow" (1988)
* "Evening Falls..." (1988)
* "Storms In Africa" (1989 in music|1989)
* "6 Tracks" (1989)
* "Oíche Chiún (Silent Night)" (1989)
* "3 Tracks EP" (1990 in music|1990)
* "Exile Enya Single|Exile" (1991)
* "Caribbean Blue" (1991)
* "How Can I Keep From Singing?" (1991)
* "Book Of Days" (1992 in music|1992)
* "The Celts" (1992)
* "Marble Halls" (1994 in music|1994)
* "The Christmas EP" (1994)
* "Anywhere Is" (1995)
* "On My Way Home" (1996 in music|1996)
* "Only If..." (1997)
* "Orinoco Flow" (1998 in music|1998)
* "Only Time" (2000)
* "Wild Child" (2001 in music|2001)
* "Only Time (Remix)" (2001)
* "May It Be" (2002 in music|2002)

It is a common misconception that Enya recorded
the song "Adiemus". This is false, as it was
recorded by musicians of the Adiemus|same name.
This song is often distributed through file
sharing networks with this erroneous information.
Similarly, recordings by Loreena McKennitt, Sissel
Kyrkjebø, Moya Brennan (her sister) have also
often been mistakenly identified as Enya
recordings (particularly those Sissel recorded for
the Enya-like soundtrack to Titanic). Similarly
the artist Ronan Hardiman's album 'Solas'
(Hardiman also responsible for the 'Riverdance'
Soundtrack) has used similar vocal recording
techniques as Enya, and has often been mistaken
for her also.

== See also ==
* Best selling music artists

== External links ==
* Official international website:
http://www.enya.com/ www.enya.com
* Official German website: http://www.enya.de/
www.enya.de
* http://discography.enya.com/ The Enya
Discography
* http://www.pathname.com/enya/ Enya -
Translations and Lyrics
* http://enya.szm.com Enya - Out of the Blue -
unofficial website