Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (Enya Brennan, in English), born 17th May 1961, spent her childhood in the parish of Gweedore (in the county of Donegal, situated in the north-west of Ireland – one of the principle places where the Gaelic language [her mother tongue] is spoken). She is one of nine brothers and sisters. Apart from Enya, who is the middle (i.e. fifth) child, there are four girls and four boys. The whole family took part in a musical band that won many contests and competitions, and of whom became famous in traditional circles throughout the country.
Whilst she went to school, Enya was already learning how to play the piano and studying classical music.
Two of her brothers and her sister, Máire Ní Bhraonáin (Mary Brennan, now known professionally as Máire Brennan), Ciarán Ó Braonáin (Kieran Brennan) and Pól Ó Braonáin (Paul Brennan) formed, together with their uncles Pádraig Ó Dugáin (Patrick Duggan) and Noel Ó Dugáin (Noel Duggan), a folk group (that had at first a few American touches that later became purely Irish, although still having some influence from jazz music or people like ‘Pentangle’). This group was called ‘Clannad’, short for “Clann as Dobhar” - “The family from Gweedore”.
In 1980, as her manager, Fachtna O’Kelly suggested [also one-time Sinéad O’Connor manager/boyfriend], Eithne joined the group (instead of realising her previous ambition to be a music teacher) , taking part in the recordings of their records “Crann Úll” and “Fuaim”. She not only took part in the backing vocals, but played the keyboard, Wurlitzer and, later on, the Synthesiser Prophet 5. She performed quite a few times with Clannad, until in February 1982, after finishing a tour of Europe, she left the group, for unknown reasons. Theories include that she was tired of being seen and treated as the little sister of the group – that she was ‘just there’ and not making any of her own material. Another theory is that she wanted to pursue her own musical direction … maybe both theories are true…
Ever since, she has lived in Artane, in north Dublin, where she shares a double house with Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan, his wife, who were born in Belfast. Both have been involved with Clannad at some point in time. Nicky had worked as a sound technician for Planxty (a famous Irish Band), and then went on to do this with Clannad, at the time they were starting out. In 1980, her manager Fachtna (pronounced ‘Fok-na’) O’Kelly took charge over a new band called ‘The Boomtown Rats’, by which Nicky was left in charge of fulfilling this task from then on.
In the house they have installed their own recording studio (called Aigle … ‘Eagle’ in French). It was here that Christy Moore recorded his LP “Ordinary Man”, on which there are three songs in which Enya took part in the backing.
It was also Fachtna who suggested to Eithne, that after leaving Clannad, she should start to compose songs for films. And so in 1984, she got her first important assignment. Roma sent one of Enya’s tapes to the film producer David Puttman who already holds his name to films like “Midnight Express”, “Chariots of Fire” & “Screams of Silence”. Puttman asked her to compose dreamy and romantic music with a feeling from the sixties for the film “The Frog Prince”.
Seeing as she had a recording studio available at home, Eithne worked from home most of the time with the Roland 60 Synthesiser or the German Kurzweil, to which she then added piano and voices. Nicky Ryan recorded all of it and helped out in giving shape to the songs.
The next assignment that she was commissioned to do came from the BBC. It consisted of preparing music for an important television documentary about the history of the Celtic civilisation from 2,700 years ago. This series was called “The Celts”. It took her ten months work to compose it all. The music became so popular and liked that the BBC decided to edit part of it as a single record, even before the series was televised. They simply called it ‘Enya’ without even mentioning that it’s a soundtrack on the front cover. Nearly all the instruments are played by her and she dubs up to 80 times in some parts in order to get her specific sound of dense textures and heavenly voices, dreamy and breathtaking. It uses the synthesisers to paint a soundtrack as an actual landscape that gives out different atmospheres, from the lamenting nature of “Deireadh an Tuath” to the amazing “Boadicea”, with its unbelievable, outstriking dynamical voices. Nicky Ryan takes part as a producer and co-author of all the arrangements, and his wife, Roma Ryan is the author of nearly all the lyrics, for the rest are nearly unheard or unperceiveable due to its brief character and the fact that they are sung in Latin, Welsh or Gaelic. There are only three songs in which other musicians take part, one for each song. Patrick Halling, a classical violinist who frequently took part in recording sessions alongside rock musicians such as Jethro Tull or Steve Howe, adding delicate touches to the last cut. The great bagpipe player Liam Óg Ó Floum (Liam O’Flynn, an old member of Planxty who usually took part with the composer Shawn Davey) interpreted the melodical part of “The Sun in the Stream”. And lastly, the guitarist Arty McGlyn (ex-member of Van Morrison’s band and of Planxty and is now part of Patrick Street). It was his job to complete, with elegant touches, the only song whose text is understandable to us, as it is sung in English and vocalised clearly. It also the song which was chosen for the single and video clip, (curiously enough, you don’t hear the guitar in the video). This record reached No. 1 in the Irish charts, with which the inevitable, commercial ascension of Enya commenced.
Sinéad O’Connor collaborated by asking Eithne to recite a small part of the text from her album “The Lion and the Cobra”. Enya then signed up with an important multinational (Warner Brothers) and started work on her first commercial album, Watermark. This piece of work shows the more uplifting and passionate side to Enya. Released in August 1988, it was at first largely ignored, until Warner Brothers decided to release Orinoco Flow as an accompanying single. The single peaked at No. 1 for three weeks and threw Enya straight into the limelight of the media. Watermark sales soared throughout the world (especially in Japan!) and made Enya the first female Irish artist to reach No. 1 in the UK charts. Her music was all-encompassingly termed ‘New-Age’, and hence has been the most successful ‘New-Age’ artist EVER!! Following singles ensued – “Evening Falls…” and in 1989, “Storms in Africa (Part II)” but only achieved average success compared to their predecessor.
Having been introduced to the realm of ‘Pop Music’, Enya began work on her second album, ‘Shepherd Moons’. This piece of work, although similar to ‘Watermark’, has a more Irish influence and is much more moving. The first single pulled from it, ‘Caribbean Blue’ brought Enya into the nineties charts and peaked at No. 13. The album was released imminently and amazingly went straight to the No. 1 spot and stayed in the charts for nearly two years, establishing Enya as a mainstream artist. The emotional excerpt, ‘How Can I Keep From Singing?’ ensued as a back-up single. Nearly a year later, one of the songs from this album, ‘Book of Days’ was re-recorded for the film ‘Far and Away’ and was released as a single in 1992, reaching No. 10. Also at this time, the Daily Mail recognised her to be the third-highest earning woman in the British Isles, earning over £3m per annum.
In the same year, it was decided that her first album ‘Enya’ should be repackaged and re-released as ‘The Celts’, as Enya originally wished. This was done, primarily as a stop-gap, and with the eponymous, accompanying single, reached the top-ten; showing that Enya had not faded away from the public eye.
It wasn’t until October 1995 that her next release appeared – ‘Anywhere Is’. This was the single taken from the forthcoming album, ‘The Memory of Trees’. A piece quite different from her others, having a very persistent, memorable melody, composed of plucked electronics. It stayed at No. 7 for two weeks and remained in the charts for nearly three months. Enya had not lost her popularity, despite a three-year gap. The album itself made No. 5, and again revealed another side to Enya, a more spiritual and dreamy aspect was taken, even drifting into Christianity (a very Irish principle!). A year later, ‘On My Way Home’ was re-recorded and released in December 1996 as a Christmas single.
During the time between this album and the next, Eithne was involved in a car crash alongside Nicky and Roma Ryan. They luckily emerged with only a few minor scathes and were generally unaffected. Also – on a more positive note – Eithne bought Ayesha Castle in Killiney Bay, situated in Dublin, for £2.3m (out-bidding Michael Flatley of ‘Riverdance’ fame).
Enya’s most recent album came out in November 1997: ‘Paint the Sky with Stars – The Best of Enya’. A back-catalogue of her music since 1986, including two new tracks. It shot to No. 4 and stayed at that position for nearly two months. The following single ‘Only If…’ was performed live at ‘The Royal Variety Performance 1997’.
Three years later in the year 2000, Enya's long awaited fifth album 'A Day Without Rain' was released, peaking at No. 6. Enya had taken a slightly different direction, composing most of the songs with strings, especially with the use of pizzicato. The songs also feel more uplifting, as if Eithne herself had felt a sense of elation having looked over her past works.
The pilot single for this album, 'Only Time' became a very important release, bringing Enya to the forefront of the American limelight. Having been used as part of the soundtrack to the film 'Sweet November' starring Keanu Reeves, it also became a healing anthem in the light of the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. Despite little success on it's first release, a remixed version of 'Only Time' surfaced on US radio stations, and became repeatedly requested. 'A Day Without Rain' shot to No. 2 in the American charts, and the remix of Only Time was released, to much success. The second single 'Wild Child' unfortunately didn't encounter such achievement.
Around this time came the release of the second Enya video compilation 'Enya: The Collection', also available on the new DVD format. Including all of her videos from 'Orinoco Flow' to 'Wild Child', it included two documentaries and a 20 minute-long interview titled 'A Life in Music'.
Later in 2001, Enya contributed two brand new songs to the 'Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring' soundtrack - 'Aníron' and the single 'May It Be'. Eithne and Roma are big fans of Tolkien's work and were ecstatic to be involved in this production and to be first singer of the fictional languages 'Síndarin' and 'Quenya' (coincidentially)!
Having passed an important stage in her career, Enya has sold over 50m albums worldwide and was the highest-earning musical artist of 1997 within the British Isles, earning well over £9m from ‘Paint the Sky with Stars’.
A unique musical prodigy from the beginning, Enya will always play a major role in the music industry. Her original, inspiring and breathtaking music can never be ‘categorised’ and will continue to be a model of quality for those who choose to pursue her direction in the future.
Transcribed, written and edited by Ainhoa Quijano and noodle :o)
