Enya Patricia Brennan was born on May 17th 1961 in County Donegal, Ireland. She is a singer as well as a songwriter and is known as ‘The Queen of New Age’.
When she was 3, Enya had her first singing experience in a competition, took part in pantomimes and sang in a church’s choir along with her siblings. A year later, she started piano and English language lessons. Then, as a teenager, she also studied classical music.
In 1980, she played backing vocals and keyboard with her Celtic folk family band named Clannad, and this is when her music career started. Then, in 1982, she left her family group with other 2 members. Together they opened a musical studio which helped Enya to develop her mezzo-soprano voice and music ability in different genres including pop, classical, Celtic, new age and Irish folk.
Five years later, her first solo album ‘Enya’ was released which was quite successful, particularly in her native country. ‘Watermark’, her second album was released in 1988 and surprisingly, was a big hit both in UK and in the US.
Over these last 35 years, Enya continued working on various albums by composing and recording many songs, including Christmas and winter themed songs and soundtracks for one of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies as well as a Japanese film. She also gave many live performances and sung in 10 different languages. Songs which reached number one in various music charts include ‘Orinoco Flow’ and ‘Only Time’, amongst others.
Enya received a lot of awards, including 4 Grammy, 7 World and 5 Billboard Music, to name a few. She is also considered to be the best-selling Irish solo artist of all time.