W ell where can you start with a biography about Enya? You could start at the start I suppose well, she was born on the 17th of May 1961 in the small town of Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair in Irish) in Co.Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. Her real name is Irish and is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (pronounced Enya nee vreeneen in Donegal Irish and etna nee vraynawn in the Connaught dialect of Irish) She is a member of a very musical family, most of her siblings are in Clannad and Maire is now pursuing a solo career with her song "Chicane" her mother too was and most probably still is a music teacher.Her father was in a show band (the Slieve foy band) for quite a long time until he decided to settle down and have a family with his wife, Baba. He bought an old tavern and renamed it "tabhairne Leo" which means Leo's tavern. They had 9 children the sixth of which is Enya the others in order of oldest to youngest are-Maire, Ciarán, Pól, Deidre, Leon, Eithne, Bartley, Olive and Bridin.
Enya's name has a good bit of an Irish legend attached to it as enya says herself-": No. It was actually she was not to marry because it was destined that her husband would eventually kill her father. So her father sent her away to this remote island but, alas, she met somebody and it happened. It wasn't like he intended to kill the father, but through battle or whatever, the father was killed by her husband."Enya sings some of her songs in Irish which is her native language because she is from the Gaeltacht of Donegal (a predominantly Irish speaking area) She had to go to school to learn English! She also says that she feels she can express herself better when singing in Irish which would make sense, usually singing or speaking in your mative language does feel more easy and right. she received her secondary education in a boarding school in Milltown. There she studied Classical music and art and she excelled in Watercolours.
When she had finished school in 1980 she joined Clannad for a while but around a year and a half later she left because she thought that their music was too much like pop and she didn't like the direction they were taking, so she left and went to live in Dublin with the Ryan's. Enya is often said to be 3 people and this is why, Nicky Ryan s her producer and arranger and she says without him or Roma(her lyricist) the phenomenom of Enya would not be possible.
Her first solo project was to write the music for David Puttnam's film," The Frog Prince" in 1985. The music she wrote for it is not actually in the film but features on the soundtrack. The songs are-"Kiss by the fountain" and "Dreams" which are available on the multimedia site.
She then was commissioned to write the music for the BBC television part series "The Celts" (Epona was used in the film "L.A Story" This was her first Album, released in 1987 and was called "Enya" originally (on the Atlantic label) but was remastered and released as "the Celts" in 1992. it features some of the songs on "Paint the Sky With Stars" such as "Boadicea" and "The Celts" these are also available in the multimedia part.
Her first album did not meet with much success however and it was only with her second album released in 1988 did she gain world-wide acclaim. It was called "Watermark" (which has sold over 8 million copies world wide)(the track "Exile" was used in the film "L.A Story")and is now seen as the starting point of her Career with the No.1 smash-hit single "Orinoco Flow" This was the first album released on the Warner label. The head of Warner music, Rob Dickins had heard her music and decided to get her to sign with his label, well=known for his ability to gain "difficult" artists she signed with Warner before "Watermark" was released and it seems that it was a good decision
She didn't release another album until 1991, "Shepherd Moons". Shepherd moons are a group of moons around Saturn. This album too was very popular, it has the popular tracks "Caribbean Blue" and "Book of days" used in the film "Far and Away" It sold over 10 million copies world-wide and won her her first Grammy.
It was to be another 4 years before she would make another album, the Grammy award winning "The Memory Of Trees", it made sales of over 2 million in its first year of sale and entered the U.S charts at no.9 The front picture on the Album is inspired by the Maxfield Parrish painting "The Young Prince of the Black Isles"
That was her latest original album in 1995. She also released a "Best Of" compilation called "Paint The Sky With Stars" or PTSWS for short in 1997 as is sometimes seen in the newsgroup. This includes 2 non-album tracks- "Only If" and the title track. "only if" was released as a single and was in the top 30 charts in Ireland. Up until now she has sold over 30 million albums, this surely must prove her world wide super stardom.
She lives a very solitary and private life now in Killiney in Co.Dublin. She has recently bought an old castle (Ayesha Castle) and is renovating it so she can move in. It put her back £2.5 million but some might say it's worth it. She lives on her own now and says she feels that it's better that way. Well that would seem to be all the Biogrphy I can possibly give without telling you what she had for her breakfast this morning, which I don't know anyway although she says her favourite is Porridge.....