Enya
Enya
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known professionally as Enya, is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. Born and raised in County Donegal, Ireland, Enya began her music career when she joined her family's Celtic band Clannad, in 1980. She left the group in 1982 to pursue a solo career with producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and his wife, poet and lyricist Roma Ryan, developing her distinct sound of multi-tracked vocals, keyboard instruments, and elements of New age, Celtic, classical, church, and...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth17 May 1961
CityGweedore, Ireland
CountryIreland
The writing of a melody is an emotional moment; success doesn't make it easy.
I do a so-called trip into myself: I sit down at the piano and the melody might start to evolve from my playing or then I might start to sing it.
My first language is Gaelic.
My influences are with Irish music, church music and classical music,
I am privileged to do a job I love to do. I would never change any moment from my life.
Over in the UK, the music press can be brutal. They can say wonderful things about you one week, and the next week, you're in the can.
I am not reclusive. I just have a private life.
I have had death threats from people with fixations.
People listen to the music and sense what it is about. Sometimes they know exactly what the songs are about, sometimes they interpret their own meaning to the music, and thats great when this happens because it shows its striking a chord.
I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.
The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me.
My mouth is a womb. My teeth are my children. My tongue is their babysitter.
I find it hard to work with other musicians because I know from experience that when they play, they play with their feeling, and that restricts me because I know I want to play in my own particular way.
Singing in Gaelic is very, very natural to do. I think lends itself very much so to being sung.