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Enya info & bio

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 an estimated equivalent of over 90 million album sales worldwide, Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist; the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall after the rock band U2. 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. Her career in music spans four decades; Enya has been composing and recording music since the 1980s.

Enya was raised in the Irish-speaking region of Gweedore. In 1980, as Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, Enya began her musical career 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 partner 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.

Enya's earliest composition releases as a solo artist 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 the 1987 BBC documentary series named The Celts. A selection of her pieces for The Celts were released as her debut album, Enya (1986). The chairman of Warner Music, Rob Dickins, found enjoyment in listening to Enya's music for The Celts. He happened to meet the trio, expressed his interest in Enya's music, and so the trio agreed to sign with Warner Music UK. The initial record deal granted her considerable artistic freedom and minimal interference. The success of the 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 9/11 attacks. After Amarantine (2005) and And Winter Came... (2008), Enya took a four-year break from music, returning to the recording studio in 2012 to begin work on her eighth studio album Dark Sky Island (2015).

Regarding a new studio album, there have been mentions about Enya recording new music, according to several close sources. As of 2019, Enya's sister Moya Brennan had mentioned that Enya was recording music.

Enya's latest statement was made in February 2025 following the announcement of her album Watermark winning the 2024 RTÉ Choice Music Prize for Classic Irish Album: "I am delighted to win the RTÉ Choice Music Classic Album Prize. Watermark has a special place in my heart - it was my second album and really launched my career internationally. It is wonderful that people are still discovering it today and it's an honour to be chosen for this prize recognising Irish music."