1. Enya's 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.
98 Facts About Enya
1. 2.
Enya left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career, working with the former Clannad manager and producer, Nicky Ryan, and his partner Roma, as their lyricist.
3.
Enya had composed a body of work for a documentary series by the BBC named The Celts.
4.
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.
5.
In March 2025, Enya received the RTE Choice Music Prize's Classic Irish Album award, with her 1988 breakthrough album Watermark.
6.
Enya wrote a speech read on her behalf, notably thanking the new generation of listeners to her music.
7.
Enya is the sixth of nine children in the Brennan family of musicians, born to Maire "Baba" and Leopold "Leo" Brennan.
8.
Enya has described her upbringing as 'very quiet and happy'.
9.
Enya mentioned that 'the house I grew up in was on my grandparents' property, behind their house.
10.
Enya took part in her first singing competitions at the annual Feis Ceoil music festival between the ages of three and five years old.
11.
Enya participated in pantomimes at the Gweedore Theatre, as seen in an early group picture where Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh was present.
12.
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.
13.
At the age of four, Enya began piano lessons and was learning English throughout primary school.
14.
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.
15.
At the age of nine, Enya was a participant in the Cailin Gaelach 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.
16.
The boarding school, now Loreto Community School, was where Enya developed a taste for classical music, art, Latin, and watercolour painting.
17.
Enya said, 'It was devastating to be torn away from such a large family but it was good for my music.
18.
Enya 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.
19.
Enya has noted that she 'was always quiet, even as a child, so there has always been an air of mystery around me' mentioning that 'at school, they'd always say, "oh, we never know what Eithne's thinking or what she'll say next".
20.
In 1970, several members of Enya's family formed Clannad, a Celtic folk band.
21.
In 1980, after a year at college, Enya decided not to go to university and pursue a music degree, and instead accepted Nicky Ryan's invitation to play alongside the band Clannad, with him having wanted to expand their sound with keyboards and an additional vocalist.
22.
Enya performed an uncredited role on their sixth studio album, Crann Ull, with a line-up of her eldest siblings Moya, Pol, and Ciaran Brennan, and twin uncles Noel and Padraig Duggan.
23.
The membership status of Enya in Clannad is a matter of some dispute.
24.
Enya recalled: 'It was short and only required a vote, I was a minority of one and lost.
25.
Enya stated, following her departure from Clannad, 'the fact is that I had become very friendly with Nicky and Roma.
26.
Shortly after leaving Clannad and thus the family home in Gweedore, Enya lived with the Ryans from 1982, until 1989, when she was able to buy a penthouse apartment in Killiney.
27.
Enya played the Prophet-5 synthesiser on the group Altan's Ceol Aduaidh, led by Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and the late Frankie Kennedy.
28.
That year, Enya had the original offer from Mike Oldfield to sing on a new song of his, likely to have been "Moonlight Shadow".
29.
An Irish folk-type song named "Bailieboro and Me", penned by Charlie McGettigan, features Enya singing backing vocals on a 1982 recording, primarily credited as Eithne Ni Bhraonain playing the grand piano for the song.
30.
Enya is credited as Eithne Ni Bhraonain in the liner notes.
31.
Puttnam liked the tape and offered Enya to compose the soundtrack to the upcoming romantic comedy film, The Frog Prince, directed by Brian Gilbert.
32.
The film editor Jim Clark said the rearrangements were necessary as Enya found it difficult to compose to picture.
33.
Enya looked back at her composition work on the film as a good career move, but a disappointing one as 'we weren't part of it at the end.
34.
In 1985, producer Tony McAuley asked Enya to contribute a track for the six-part BBC television documentary series The Celts.
35.
Enya recorded 72 minutes of music at Aigle Studio and the BBC studios in Wood Lane, London, without recording to the picture.
36.
Enya was required to portray certain themes and ideas that the producers wanted; however, in contrast with The Frog Prince, she worked with little interference, which granted her freedom to establish the sound that she would adopt throughout her future career, signified by layered vocals, keyboard-oriented music, and percussion with elements of Celtic, classical, church, and folk music.
37.
In March 1987, two months before The Celts aired, a 40-minute selection of Enya's score was released as her debut solo album, Enya, by BBC Records in the United Kingdom, with the Atlantic Records release in the United States in 1986.
38.
Enya took legal action and the group subsequently gave her credit; they paid a fee of approximately $3 million.
39.
Later in 1987, Enya appeared on Sinead O'Connor's debut album The Lion and the Cobra, reciting Psalm 91 in Irish on the track "Never Get Old" which Enya later posted the words of as her tribute message to Sinead following her passing in July 2023.
40.
In 1993 Enya won her first Grammy Award in the Best New Age Album category for Shepherd Moons.
41.
In November 1992, Warner obtained the rights to Enya and re-released the album as The Celts with new artwork.
42.
In late 1994, Enya put out an extended play of Christmas music titled The Christmas EP.
43.
Enya was offered the opportunity to compose the film score for Titanic but declined as it would be a collaboration, rather than solely her composition and singing.
44.
In early 1997, Enya began to select tracks for her first compilation album, 'trying to select the obvious ones, the hits, and others.
45.
That year, Enya started work on her fifth studio album, titled A Day Without Rain.
46.
Enya donated its proceeds in aid of the International Association of Firefighters.
47.
The song topped the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and went to number 10 on the Hot 100 singles, Enya's highest charting US single to date.
48.
In 2001, Enya agreed to write and perform on two tracks for the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at the request of director Peter Jackson.
49.
Shore then based his orchestrations around Enya's recorded vocals and themes to create "a seamless sound".
50.
In 2002, Enya released "May It Be" as a single which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
51.
Enya performed the song live with an orchestra at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony in March 2002, and later cited the moment as a career highlight.
52.
In 2004, Enya had another significant "Boadicea" sampling request from Diddy, for the song "I Don't Wanna Know" performed by Mario Winans.
53.
Enya said that the producer 'phoned the studio we were working in and Nicky took the call and he [Diddy] just said he had this fantastic singer that he was working with and it was Mario Winans.
54.
In September 2003, Enya returned to Aigle Studio to start work on her sixth studio album, Amarantine.
55.
The album marks the first instance of Enya singing in Loxian, a fictional language created by Roma that came about when Enya was working on "Water Shows the Hidden Heart".
56.
Enya dedicated the album to BBC producer Tony McAuley who had commissioned Enya to write the soundtrack to The Celts, following his death in 2003.
57.
Enya wrote music with a winter and Christmas theme for her seventh studio album, And Winter Came.
58.
Enya spent her time resting, visiting family in Australia, and renovating her new home in the south of France.
59.
In 2012, Enya returned to the studio to record her eighth album, Dark Sky Island.
60.
Enya completed a promotional tour of the UK, Europe, the US, and Japan.
61.
In December 2016, Enya appeared on the Irish television show Christmas Carols from Cork, marking her first Irish television appearance in over seven years.
62.
Enya had previously noted for her 2015 album Dark Sky Island, that 'several songs here have a stronger beat, and even a little hip-hop influence.
63.
On 20 February 2025, on the RTE Gold Breakfast Show, Enya was announced as the winner of the RTE Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album, with her 1988 album Watermark.
64.
Enya's award was celebrated at Vicar Street, Dublin, in the late hours of 6 March 2025.
65.
Enya has cited her musical foundations as 'the classics", church music, and "Irish reels and jigs' with a particular interest in Sergei Rachmaninoff, a favourite composer of hers.
66.
Enya was an early adopter of synthesiser music, a skilled synth player, which equalled the significance of her singing, especially on her album Watermark.
67.
Since 1982, Enya has recorded music with Nicky Ryan as her producer and arranger, and his wife Roma Ryan as lyricist.
68.
Enya plays a whole lot of instruments, not just keyboards.
69.
Enya has recorded music influenced by works from fantasy author JR R Tolkien, including the instrumental "Lothlorien" from Shepherd Moons.
70.
Enya adopted a composing and songwriting method that has deviated little throughout her career.
71.
Enya considered "Fallen Embers" from A Day Without Rain a perfect example of the lyrics exactly reflecting the feeling.
72.
Enya says that Warner Music and she 'did not see eye to eye' initially as the label imagined her performing on stage 'with a piano.
73.
Enya expressed the difficulty in recreating her studio-oriented sound for the stage.
74.
In 2016, Enya spoke about the prospect of a live concert when she revealed talks with the Ryans during her three-year break after And Winter Came.
75.
Enya has performed with live and lip-syncing vocals on various talk and music shows, events, and ceremonies throughout her career, most often during her worldwide press tours for each album.
76.
In 1997, Enya participated in a live Christmas Eve broadcast in London and flew to County Donegal afterward to join her family for their annual midnight Mass choral performance, in which she participates each year.
77.
Enya has not married and has no children, but has many nieces and nephews and is considered an aunt to the Ryans' two daughters, having shared their Artane home for almost a decade.
78.
Enya found she was putting pressure on herself over the matter and has 'gone the route [she] wanted to go' after all.
79.
Enya has identified herself as 'more spiritual than religious' and has said that she sometimes prays, but prefers 'going into churches when they're empty'.
80.
In November 1997, Enya mentioned upon news of her contributing to Diana's tribute album, 'I met Lady Diana twice and the second time we met she told me that my composition "Watermark" was a favourite melody of hers.
81.
Enya spent several years renovating the castle, and installing considerable security measures because of threats from stalkers.
82.
Enya alerted police by raising an alarm from her safe room.
83.
Enya oversaw most of the interior design as she was 'not going to trust that to anyone else.
84.
Enya later bought a home in the south of France, close in location to the home of U2 singer Bono, near Eze.
85.
Enya spent time renovating it to a more contemporary style than the Victorian style of her castle home.
86.
Enya is an avid art collector; her collection includes artworks by Irish artists including Jack Butler Yeats and Louis le Brocquy and the British artist Albert Goodwin.
87.
Enya recalled reading books in her youth such as The Lord of the Rings, and the Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton, prior to going to boarding school herself.
88.
Enya mentioned her favourite books being Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
89.
Enya has shown admiration for the literary works of both Wilde and JR R Tolkien.
90.
Visual-media-wise, Enya has mentioned watching operas, such as Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House, especially as she frequently travels to Australia to visit her sister and other relatives, occasionally getting noticed 'at the most obscure places' she added in 2008.
91.
Enya likes watching classic black-and-white films, especially those directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
92.
Enya is drawn to watching crime dramas or period drama series, such as Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, saying 'myself, Nicky, and Roma are huge fans of Breaking Bad.
93.
Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist and one of the most influential vocalists of all time.
94.
Enya is admired by, and has influenced a number of artists from several genres, including Aurora, Weyes Blood, FKA Twigs, Grimes, Adam Young, Cynthia Erivo, and Nicki Minaj, who declared in a television interview: 'One of my biggest [musical influences] is Enya.
95.
Enya was described by National Geographic's Ireland book, as the 'Queen of ambient Celtic lullabies.
96.
Enya receiving the RTE Choice Music Prize for Classic Album in 2025 is testament to her lasting significance in Irish music and beyond.
97.
In early 2025, Enya was announced as the winner of the 2025 RTE Choice Music Prize's Classic Irish Album, with her 1988 album Watermark.
98.
In 1991, a minor planet first discovered in 1978,6433 Enya, was named after her.