Artist:Enya
Song:Only Time
Album:The Very Best of Enya
Enya is the best selling Irish solo artist of all time. The best selling Irish artist is U2. Enya has sold over 80 million albums. She's had two hit singles. The 1988 single Orinoco Flow which topped the British charts. And the 2000 single Only Time which is her only US top ten hit. Her success is mostly as an album and touring artist. She was born Eithne Padraigin Ni Bhraonain May 17, 1961 in Dore, Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland. Her whole family are musicians. Her dad Leo Brennan owned Leo's Tavern in Meenaleck and led the Slieve Foy Band. That's where he met Enya's mom. She was a music teacher in a local school. Her birth name is Gaelic. But anglicized it becomes Enya Patricia Brennan. There were nine kids in the family so there was a lot of noise. Enya was the quiet one which she preferred. She started singing as a child and took piano lessons. Enya loved movie musicals especially Jesus Christ Superstar. She attended a convent boarding school as a teen where Enya learned about classical music. She also studied classical music in college. Enya thought she would be a music teacher like her mother and grandmother. Then her dad formed the band Clannad with several family members. Nicky Ryan was the band's manager, sound engineer and producer. His wife Roma was tour manager. When Enya returned from college, Ryan brought her into Clannad to play keyboards. She was never really a member of the band. And when Ryan left in 1982, Enya went with him. She did some studio work and recorded instrumental albums. And that led to film producer David Putnam hiring Enya to compose the score for the 1984 film The Frog Prince. Then she worked on the 1985 BBC documentary series The Celts. That was released as her debut solo album Enya. Atlantic released it in the US. Warner Music UK chairman Rob Dickins liked it so much that he signed Enya. The key thing is he gave her artistic freedom. She was on Geffen in the US. The 1988 album Watermark became an unexpected hit. The single Orinoco Flow topped the British Singles chart for three weeks. It reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100. Watermark was certified 4XPlatinum. It was a big surprise but Enya's subsequent albums also sold well. Her other big hit was the 2000 single Only Time from the album A Day Without Rain. It reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified 7XPlatinum. It's Enya's biggest seller. You can get both songs on this budget comp. The success of Only Time was because the song was used in news coverage of the 9/11 attack. Then she was Oscar nominated for the song May It Be from the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. She performed it on the Oscar broadcast. Enya hasn't been as successful since then. She last recorded in 2015. There is talk Enya is working on a new album. Her website was rebooted so it doesn't look like she is retiring. I don't like Enya's music. It's too "easy listening" and "new age" for me. But that's why Tim Dickins liked Enya's music in the first place. It helped him get to sleep. That she became a big seller was a fluke. Here's the video for Only Time by Enya.
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