Enya

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961; anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan) known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of over 90 million album sales worldwide, Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after the rock band U2. Her music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music.

Raised in the Irish-speaking region of Gweedore, Enya began her musical career in 1980 playing alongside her family's Irish folk band Clannad. She left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career, working with the former Clannad manager and producer, Nicky Ryan, and his wife Roma, as their lyricist. Over the following four years, Enya further developed her sound by combining multitracked vocals and keyboards with elements from a variety of musical genres, such as Celtic, classical, church, jazz, hip-hop, ambient, world, and Irish folk. Her earliest solo releases were two piano/synthesiser instrumentals for the Touch Travel T4 cassette compilation (1984) composed around 1982–83. The majority of the soundtrack for The Frog Prince (1985) was originally composed by Enya, and she sang two songs with lyrics for the project. Enya had also composed a body of work for a documentary series by the BBC named The Celts. A selection of Enya's pieces for The Celts were released as her self-titled debut album (1986) with the documentary and BBC Records releases in 1987.

The chairman of Warner Music at the time, Rob Dickins, enjoyed listening to Enya's music for The Celts and signed her with Warner Music UK. The initial record deal granted her considerable artistic freedom and minimal interference. The success of her second studio album, Watermark (1988), propelled Enya to worldwide fame, primarily through her international hit single "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)". In the following decade and up to the new millennium, she released the multi-million-selling albums Shepherd Moons (1991), The Memory of Trees (1995), and A Day Without Rain (2000). Sales of A Day Without Rain and its lead single, "Only Time", surged in the United States following its use in media coverage of the September 11 attacks. Her subsequent releases included Amarantine (2005), And Winter Came... (2008) and Dark Sky Island (2015).

"Boadicea", a track from her self-titled album, appeared in the soundtrack of Stephen King's 1992 horror film Sleepwalkers and was sampled in several hit songs, including "Ready or Not" (1996) by Fugees and "I Don't Wanna Know" (2004) featuring Mario Winans, which became the second Number 1 single featuring Enya, in the UK charts. The song continues to be sampled almost 4 decades since its first release.

Enya's accolades include four Grammy Awards, six World Music Awards, and she holds the record as the most-nominated female Irish artist at the BRIT Awards, with four nominations. "May It Be", her composition from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In March 2025, Enya received the RTÉ Choice Music Prize's Classic Irish Album award, with her 1988 breakthrough album Watermark. Enya wrote a speech read on her behalf, notably thanking the new generation of listeners to her music.

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin was born in the Dore area of Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore) in County Donegal on 17 May 1961. She is the sixth of nine children in the Brennan family of musicians, born to Máire "Baba" and Leopold "Leo" Brennan. In 1968, the couple took ownership of a pub in Meenaleck, Co. Donegal, naming it Leo's Tavern. Leo Brennan was the leader of an Irish showband named the Slieve Foy Band, before performing solo. Baba Brennan (née Duggan) is said to have Spanish roots with ancestors who settled on Tory Island and she was an amateur musician who played with the Slieve Foy Band. Enya's mother also taught music at Gweedore Community School.

Gweedore is a Gaeltacht region, where the Irish language, also known as Gaelic, is primarily spoken. Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, her name, is anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan, with "Enya" being the phonetic spelling of how "Eithne" is pronounced in the Donegal Ulster dialect.

The name Brennan was accidentally added to Leo's name at his birth registration in 1925; his family name was Hardin; Leo used Brennan for the surname of his children. In Irish, the surname is "Ó Braonáin"/"Ní" Bhraonáin - corresponding to "son of"/"daughter of Brennan". Leo's father Harry Hardin was a pianist, and he died performing on stage. Enya's paternal grandmother, Minna Lenehan, played the drums. They were both believed to have been born in England. Regarding Baba's parents, Enya's maternal grandfather, Aodh (anglicised as Hugh; affectionately addressed as Hughie or "Gog") was the headmaster of the primary school in Dore; her grandmother, Mháire Duggan (anglicised as Mary; née Gillespie) was a teacher. Aodh was also the founder of the Aisteoiri Ghaodobhair, the Gweedore Theatre company.

Enya has described her upbringing as 'very quiet and happy'. She mentioned that 'the house I grew up in was on my grandparents’ property, behind their house. Ours was built in the 1950s and wasn’t very big.' Regarding her position in the family, Enya said 'it was difficult to be heard, but I was very comfortable with that because I was able to be myself, able to be let alone.' She also acknowledged that there was 'continual hustle and bustle and crying and chaos' amongst the nine siblings. Their maternal grandparents and aunt were quite involved with the siblings' upbringing at home, as Baba and Leo were travelling with the showband; Enya recalled 'they toured a great deal, mostly in Ireland and Scotland. When they did, my grandmother and my mother’s sister took care of us.' Enya's songs "On Your Shore" and "Smaointe" (first released as the Orinoco Flow B-side track "Smaoitím") are dedicated to both her maternal grandmother and grandfather.

Along with the siblings' enjoyment of their childhood spent in Gweedore, they also grew up amid the Troubles. Enya recalls that when her family visited shops in Derry for instance, 'you’d be checked by people standing with guns', and even speaking in Irish in Derry was 'pinpointing where you came from, and it was too political at the time. Whereas for [Enya and siblings] it was our first language, and we didn’t see anything wrong with it.'

Enya took part in her first singing competitions at the annual Feis Ceoil music festival between the ages of three and five years old. She also participated in pantomimes at the Gweedore Theatre, as seen in an early group picture where Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh was also present . Enya often recalls that at three-and-a-half years of age, she played the character Little Red Riding Hood on stage, singing a song. At the age of four, Enya began piano lessons and was learning English throughout primary school. In 2008, Enya described her early studies, having 'to do school work and then travel to a neighbouring town for piano lessons, and then more school work. I remember my brothers and sisters playing outside and I would be inside playing the piano, this one big book of scales, practising them over and over.'

One particular memory of a very early public performance of singing at age five was recounted by Enya in her 2016 Wall Street Journal article. At the theatre, contestants would 'perform two songs, starting with a slow one and finishing with a fast one [...] songs we were taught in primary school.' Enya's mother was the pianist, and provided the starting notes for each person performing. By mistake, Enya 'began with the fast song. I didn’t realize my error until I saw my mother’s frown. I stopped singing and covered my mouth. There was silence, followed by laughter.' Enya then 'sang the right song. When I finished, there was a pause and I sang the fast song again. I won the contest [...] determined to get it right, and the audience’s laughter didn’t deter me.'

As well as traditional Irish music and singing choral music with her siblings in their mother's choir at St Mary's church in Derrybeg, Enya and her siblings were introduced to a variety of music in the 1960s and '70s, and enjoyed watching musical films. In a radio interview with Elaine Page in November 2008, Enya shared a selection of favourite songs from musicals. She said of Jesus Christ Superstar, 'it was such an original piece of music in 1970 [...] played in my house every single day, and myself and my sisters would sing word for word.'

Enya's brother Ciarán also mentions that when the siblings were younger, before having a tape recorder, as Moya and Enya sang, he would play piano, 'give them two-part harmonies and say, "You go into the kitchen, you go into the bathroom" and they were fascinated by this because musically it was very melodic, even though they wouldn't finally hear their parts until they sang together.'

In addition to her musical endeavours, Enya also took part in the Gaeltacht Festival competitions in Gweedore as a child. At the age of nine, Enya was a participant in the Cailín Gaelach (Irish Girl) competition, which judged contestants on 'their fluency of spoken Irish, involvement in social and cultural activities in their parish and community, and appearance and deportment.' The 1970 event was filmed and published in the RTÉ Archives in 2020.

From the age of 11, Enya attended a convent boarding school in Milford, Milford College, run by the Sisters of Loreto; Enya's education there was paid for by her grandfather. The boarding school, now Loreto Community School, was where Enya developed a taste for classical music, art, Latin, and watercolour painting. She said, 'It was devastating to be torn away from such a large family but it was good for my music.' Enya finished boarding school at age 17 towards the end of the 1970s, and she spent a year at college studying classical music. She previously saw herself becoming a piano teacher, as both her mother and grandmother had done, and gave piano lessons for a brief time in the early 1980s. This later evolved into composing and performing her own music. Enya states that 'music was never far from my mind but contrary to popular belief my ambitions were in no way connected to those of my family, as I knew I wanted to have my own career and make my own mark.'