Her real name is Eithne Ni Bhraonain, an Irish name which translates to Eithne Brennan in English. Eithne is pronounced 'Enya' and she chose to use this pseudo-phonetic spelling professionally so that she could be known by her own name but avoid the inevitable pronunciation problems.
1.2 When was she born, where does she come from, what's her background?
Eithne was born on May 17th 1961, the fourth youngest of nine children, in the small village of Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair) in County Donegal in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland. She now lives in Dublin.
The family is very musical and her parents played in a family dance band before settling down. Father Leo now owns the local pub and mother Baba taught music in the local school.
Elder siblings Maire, Ciaran & Pol, and uncles Padraig & Noel O Dugain, formed the band Clannad in the late 1960's to perform traditional Irish music at festivals etc. They later performed their own material as well and have recorded a number of albums.
1.3 Was she ever a member of Clannad?
After leaving school in 1980 she joined Clannad and, credited under her real name, provided keyboards and (mostly) backing vocals. She appears on their album _Fuaim_ released in 1982, the year she left the band.
1.4 And after Clannad?
In 1982 Clannad split with their long time manager and producer Nicky Ryan. Eithne, apparently frustrated with being left in the background, left at the same time and in response to Ryan's belief that she had talent in her own right, moved to Dublin to live with him and his wife Roma and develop her own musical career.
The first real fruits of this collaboration came when film producer David Puttnam heard some demonstration tapes sent to him by Roma Ryan. He commissioned Eithne to write music for his film _The_Frog_Prince_ which was released in 1985. In the end only a couple of her pieces were used and these were arranged and performed by others.
The titles on _The_Frog_Prince_ credit music to Enya Ni Bhraonain and the
transition of Eithne to 'Enya' had begun.
In 1986 BBC-TV began work on a six part documentary series charting the history and continuing cultural influence of the Celts. Enya was signed to write and perform music for the series. _The_Celts_ was first shown in 1987 and a selection of its music released under the title _Enya_ giving the artist her first album, largely unnoticed at the time.
1.5 What was her 'big break'?
This really began in 1987 when she was signed by Rob Dickins, head of WEA Music UK, after he had heard and been entranced by _Enya_. Reknowned as one of the most arrogant men in the business, Dickins has a talent for promoting 'difficult' artists - no matter how long it takes.
WEA's backing made the recording of _Watermark_ possible and the album was released in 1988. Although no singles were originally planned, it was the rel ease _Orinoco_Flow_ that brought Enya to public attention and resulted in an unexpected chart number 1 in several countries. The rest, as they say, is history...
1.6 I keep hearing that 'Enya' is three people. What does this mean?
Although fronted by Enya herself, the music released under her name is the result of the collaboration of Enya (music/arrangements), Nicky Ryan (production/arrangements) and Roma Ryan (lyrics). Enya has said in several interviews that without any one of them 'Enya' could not exist.
---------------------
2.1 What records and videos have been released?
Albums:
1987 Enya (also released as _The_Celts_)
1988 Watermark
1991 Shepherd Moons
Singles/EPs:
1987 I Want Tomorrow
1988 Orinoco Flow / Evening Falls...
1989 Storms In Africa / 6 Tracks / Oiche Chiun
1990 3 Tracks EP
1991 Exile / Caribbean Blue /How Can I Keep From Singing?
1992 Book Of Days / The Celts
Videos:
1991 Moonshadows
A number of the singles contain tracks that are not featured on any of the album releases.
2.2 Is there a more detailed discography available?
There are two discographies currently available on the Internet from the archive at cs.uwp.edu (see 4.3 below):
File Maintainer Current Issue
---- ---------- -------------
enya Steven Seidman (sseidman@isis.cs.du.edu) 2.0 (04 Apr 92)
enya2 Dave Allum (D.R.Allum@bath.ac.uk) 3 (12 Dec 92)
2.3 Are there any books of her music?
Two music manuscript books have been published:
Watermark (Wise Publications, 1988, ISBN 0-7119-1771-X)
Shepherd Moons (Wise Publications, 1992, ISBN 0-7119-2903-7)
2.4 Some of her songs aren't in English. What other languages does she use?
Enya's non-English songs are generally sung in Irish which is her first language. Of the others two are sung in Latin (_Cursum_Perficio_ and _Afer_Ventus_) and one is in Welsh (_Dan_Y_Dwr_).
2.5 Where can I get translations?
A fairly complete set of translations has been compiled by Lyle Corbin (lylec@microsoft.com). Copies are available from cs.uwp.edu - see 4.3 for details.
2.6 Have I heard Enya at the movies and on TV?
Several of her pieces have been used in films:
Far And Away: Book Of Days (English lyric version)
Green Card : River, Storms In Africa, Watermark
L.A. Story : Epona, Exile, On Your Shore
Sleepwalkers: Boadicea
Toys : Ebudi_ae
A number of her tracks have been used in TV commercials and also as incidental music in numerous shows and documentaries.
2.7 Apart from Clannad has she appeared on any other artists' records?
1983 Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh & Frankie Kennedy / Ceol Aduaidh
Synthesizer on track _An_Clar_Bog_Deil_. The duo later formed the
folk band Altan.
1985 Christy Moore / Ordinary Man
Keyboards and backing vocals. Also credited as one of the album's
arrangers.
1987 Sinead O'Conner / The Lion and The Cobra
Spoken passage from the Bible, in Irish, on track _Never_Get_Old_.
--------------------
3.1 Does she tour?
Not yet. She is on record as wanting to put her music on stage but, not wanting to sit surrounded by tape decks, would have to rearrange it for live performance.
3.2 How many records has she sold?
Around 10 million worldwide. _Shepherd_Moons_ passed the 5 million mark early this year with _Watermark_ close behind. _Enya_ (_The_Celts_) has recently been re-released and is selling well.
3.3 Have any articles or interviews been transcribed?
A number of magazine articles and TV and radio interviews have been transcribed and posted as the _Enya_Papers_. Most of these have been done by Peter Warburton (pwarburt@ibmpcug.co.uk) who administers the papers. Copies - at the last count 25 papers have been posted - are archived at cs.uwp.edu (see 4.3 below).
3.4 Any news of Clannad?
Clannad have continued to perform and record. At the time of writing a new album is scheduled for release in April 1993.
Pol left the band in 1989/90 andMaire released a solo album, _Maire_, in 1992.
Sisters Deirdre, Olive and Bridin featured on _Maire_ and Bridin has toured and recorded with Clannad as a backing vocalist.
3.5 Is a font of the _Watermark_ artwork script available?
For example:
System Site File
------- ----- ----
Apple II ftp.cco.caltech.edu /pub/apple2/truetype/Enya.shk
Macintosh sumex-aim.stanford.edu /info-mac/font/tt/enya.hqx
Windows ftp.cica.indiana.edu /pub/pc/win3/fonts/truetype/enya.zip
Please check (e.g. using archie) for the availability of these files at more
local archives before dowloading from those above.
---------------------
4.1 What Usenet groups discuss Enya?
There are two Usenet newsgroups dedicated to Enya - alt.music.enya and alt.fan.enya. Of these the former is the more widely available and certainly the more active. Unfortunately many sites do not carry the alt hierarchy. Enya is also occasionally discussed in rec.music.newage.
4.2 Is there a mailing list?
If your site doesn't carry the newsgroups, or you would like another outlet, then try the electronic mailing list run by Tim Hunter. Send a message to enya-request@boulder.colorado.edu to subscribe.
4.3 Where is all this information archived?
A lot of Enya information is available by anonymous ftp from the archive run by Dave Datta at cs.uwp.edu. Check the following directories:
/pub/music/discog/e Discographies.
/pub/music/lists/enya Transcripts including the _Enya_Papers_.
/pub/music/lyrics/e/enya Lyrics and translations.
/pub/music/pictures/e/enya GIF and JPEG pictures.
The archive, which has a wide range of material on many artists, is also available via Gopher and WAIS at gopher.uwp.edu and cs.uwp.edu respectively.
Thanks to Brian Fehdrau and Jagg Groeg whose earlier FAQ's made this one much easier to produce; and to Aidan Hollinshead for his helpful comments on the draft of this issue.
