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Enya was born in the Gaeltact area in County Donegal, Ireland, on May 17th, 1961. She was named Eithne Ni Bhraonain. Eithne is Irish and means "fire" and is also the feminine version of Aidan. "Eithne" is pronounced "Enya", and she chose to use that spelling of her name to avoid mispronounciations.
Enya comes from a small village of Dobhair in the Gaoth Dobhair region of County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. Today she lives in Killiney; which is a coastal district on the southern outskirts of Dublin, and she also lives in London.
Enya's first language was Gaelic (Irish), but she also speaks Latin, Welsh, and Spanish, which some of her songs shows. The song Dan Y Dwr which is featured on The Celts is probably the only song sung in Welsh. Welsh is the language spoken in Wales in the British Isles.
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Enya's musical career took its beginning when she in 1980, after leaving school, joined the band formed in 1968 by her elder brothers; Ciaran and Pol, and her uncles; Padraig and Noel O Dugain: "An Clann As Dobhair" (The Family From Dore), which later on changed name to just "Clannad". "Clannad" performed traditional Irish music at festivals, and has achieved great international success over time. Enya's part in "Clannad" was to provide keyboards and backing vocals. Backing vocals was the one thing she did most of.
In 1982 Clannad split with their manager; Nicky Ryan, and since Enya did not like being left in the background in the band, she left at the same time as Nicky Ryan. He strongly believed she had a talent, and therefore, she moved to Dublin together with Nicky and his wife; Roma.
Enya's musical career finally began when a filmproducer named David Puttnam, heard some demonstration tapes sent to him by Roma Ryan. He liked what Enya could perform, and therefore he commisioned Enya to write the music for his film: "The Frog Prince", which was released in 1985. "The Frog Prince" is a romantic comedy set in France. In the end, only a few pieces of her music was used, and it was also performed and arranged by somebody else. "The Frog Prince" soundtrack, did however, include two vocal tracks performed by Enya which did not appear in the film. It is actually on that particular album, she begins her transition of her name to just be "Enya" instead of "Eithne".
In 1986 BBC-TV started work on a six part documentary series about the history and continuing cultural influence of the Celts. Enya was then signed to perform and write music for the series; which were first shown in 1987. Later, a selection of the music from the series was released under the title "Enya", and was Enya's first album - hardly noticed at that time.
Still in 1987, Rob Dickins; the head of WEA Music UK, signed Enya after hearing the "Enya" album. It was WEA's backing that made it possible to record Watermark, which was released in 1988. There were no plans of making any singles, but the release of Orinoco Flow did bring Enya to public attention and made her unexpectedly chart number 1 in many countries. 10 years later, Enya has sold over 33 million copies of her albums worldwide, which makes her the greatest female artist of all time.
Many people have heard Enya's music on TV. Her music has often been used in movies and for TV-commercials. In "L.A. Story" Exile, Epona, and On Your Shore was used. In "Green Card" Storms In Africa, Watermark, and River was used. In "Far and Away" the English version of Book Of Days was used. In "The Age of Innocence" Marble Halls was used. In "Toys" Ebudæ was used, and in "Sleepwalkers" Boadicea was used. Enya also composed a song for the movie "The Lord of the Rings" - May It Be.
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