The Solo Careers
Biography
Enya ( born Eithne Ni Braonain , in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland on May 17 1961) was born into a musical family. Her Father Leo Brennan, was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band, a popular Irish Show Band ; Her mother was an amateur musician. Most importantly to Enya's career, was her siblings, who formed Clannad in 1970 with some of the uncles.
Enya joined the band as a keyboard player in 1979, an contributed to several of the bands popular television soundtracks. In 1982 enya left Clannad, claiming she was uninterested in following the pop direction the group began to pursue. Within a few years, Enya was commissioned, along with producer / aranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Rona Ryan, to provide the score for a BBC-TV series called The Celts, The soundtrack was released in 1986 as her eponymous solo album titled Enya ( later re-released as The Celts ).
Enya did not receive much notice, but Enya and the Ryan's second effort, Watermark became a surprise hit on it's release in 1988. " Orinoco Flow." The first single pulled from the album, became a number one hit in Britian, helping the album eventually sell four million copies world wide.
Enya spent several years following the success rather quietly, her most noteable appearance was on a cameo on Sinead O'Conner's, I do not want what I haven't got.
Enya finally released Shepherd Moons, her follow - up to Watermark, in 1991. Shepherd Moons was more successful than it's predecessor, entering the US charts at number 17 and selling over 10 million copies worldwide.
Again Enya was slow to follow up on the success of Shepherd Moons spending nearly 4 years on her fourth album. The title of the new album was Memory of Trees and was released in December 1995. Memory of Trees entered the US charts at number nine and sold over two million copies in the first year of Release . Two years later saw the release of The best of Enya album titled Paint the sky with Stars in 1997. This album had two new tracks among the many old favorites titled Only If .... and Paint the sky with Stars.............
