
1984–87: Career beginnings Įnya recorded two solo instrumental pieces called "An Ghaoth Ón Ghrian" (Irish for "The Solar Wind") and "Miss Clare Remembers" that were released on the 1984 album Touch Travel. Enya then formed her own recording studio, named "Aigle", which is French for "eagle". In 1982, shortly before Clannad became internationally renowned for " Theme From Harry's Game", producer and manager Nicky Ryan left the group and Enya joined him to start her own solo career. During that same year, Enya was also a member of Ragairne, the band of Altan front-woman Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. Enya played the keyboard and provided backing vocals on their album Crann Úll (1980), although she was not officially a member of the group until the 1981 release Fuaim, when she appeared on the cover. In 1980, Enya worked with Clannad, the band composed of her siblings Máire (Moya), Pól, and Ciarán and twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan.

They renamed the band Clannad in the 1970s. She attended Loreto Community School in Milford, County Donegal and then moved away to attend college wanting to become a classical pianist, continuing her studies in music and also studying watercolour painting.Įnya has four brothers and four sisters, several of whom formed the band An Clann As Dobhar in 1968. From a young age, Enya appeared in many pantomimes onstage at Gweedore's local theatre and sang with her siblings in her mother's choir at St Mary's Catholic Church, Derrybeg. Her grandparents were in a band that played throughout Ireland, her father was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band before opening Leo's Tavern, and her mother played in a dance band and later taught music at Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.

She is part of an Irish-speaking, Catholic musical family, the sixth of nine children. A sign for Leo's Tavern in Gweedore, which reads "The home of Clannad & Enya"Įnya was born and raised in Gweedore, County Donegal, in the northwest corner of Ireland. Life and career 1961–83: Musical upbringing and Clannad

She gained wider recognition for her music in the 1987 BBC series The Celts. Enya (born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin Irish pronunciation:, anglicised as Enya Brennan ) is an Irish singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is one of Moya Brennan's younger sisters.Įnya began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to perform solo.
