After leaving the school at the age of seventeen, she continued her study of music and trained as a classical piano musician under the guidance of Professor Cathal O'Callaghan whilst he was Parish Priest at Dungloe, Co. Donegal. A year later, she joined Clannad on suggestion of their manager Nicky Ryan. The family group featured her twin uncles Pádraig and Noel Ó Dugáin, older brothers Ciarán and Pól Ó Braonáin and her sister Máire Ní Bhraonáin. Enya provided backing vocals and played the Wurlitzer electric piano, later she used the synthesizer Prophet 5. She stayed with Clannad for almost two years, toured with them and participated in recording of albums Crann Ull and Fuaim. On completing a European tour in February 1982, Enya announced that she would leave the band together with Clannad's long-time manager and producer Nicky Ryan. She moved to live with him and his wife Roma to Artane, Dublin wanting to develop her own musical career. Enya began writing melodies, learned the saxophone and played the piano. In 1984, her two instrumentals Miss Clare Remembers and An Ghaoth On Ghrian got released on Touch Travel cassette in the limited edition of 5000 copies. Miss Clare Remembers later appeared on Watermark, but An Ghaoth On Ghrian hasn't been released again. Roma, who had found the songs very "visual", sent the tape of Enya to David Puttnam who needed a composer for his movie The Frog Prince. Attracted by the demo tape he offered the work to Enya and she wrote a sweet romantic music for him. However, the soundtrack got orchestrated so it wasn't until the BBC documentary series The Celts that she could arrange all the music herself. The Celts soundtrack was released separately as an album titled simply Enya, with the song I Want Tomorrow as a single. Although it didn't enjoy major chart success, Rob Dickins, chairman of Warner Music UK, heard the album and fell in love with it. When he met Enya at an Irish awards ceremony outside Dublin he promptly signed her. "I signed her as an artist without any commercial potential at all," said Dickins. "I was just a fan." One year later, Enya released Watermark. Its first single Orinoco Flow, written as the last song for the album, became a surprise number one hit in Britain and the album climbed to no.5 in the UK charts. Watermark introduced Enya worldwide - it has sold millions copies and has gone platinum in fourteen different countries. Enya spent the years following the success of Watermark rather quietly until she returned in 1991 with the UK chart-topper Shepherd Moons. The album with songs Caribbean Blue and Book Of Days as singles has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and won Enya her first Grammy. The next Grammy-winning album The Memory Of Trees followed in 1995, entering the U.S charts at no.9. Two years later, Enya released a Best Of compilation called Paint The Sky With Stars, which featured two new tracks (Only If..., Paint The Sky With Stars) and a three CD collection called A Box Of Dreams. The CDs entitled Oceans, Clouds and Stars covered Enya's career from 1987 to 1997. In 2000, five years after The Memory of Trees, Enya released a studio album entitled A Day Without Rain. The track Only Time was used in news coverage of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. A remix of the track was released as a single with all the profit made going to the International Association of Firefighters. A Day Without Rain won Best New Age Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards and with more than 15 million units sold worldwide became Enya's best-selling album to date. In 2001, Peter Jackson asked Enya to write two songs for his movie adaptation of the first part of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Enya, a fan of Tolkien, agreed and contributed to the soundtrack of The Fellowship Of The Ring with Aníron and May It Be. May It Be received an Oscar nomination and Enya preformed the song live at the ceremony. In September 2004, Panasonic used Enya's song Sumiregusa (Wild Violet) in a Japanese commercial promoting their Viera television. Shortly afterwards, Warner Music Japan announced that the new full-lenght album was due to be released in November 2004. The announcement was promptly denied by Aigle Music and it wasn't until a year later that they confirmed the release date of Amarantine on November 2005. In winter of the following year, Enya released a Christmas-themed EP Sounds of the Season and mentioned that she was mid-way through a Christmas album. However, as the recording began to take shape a broader seasonal theme emerged and the album became And Winter Came. Released in November 2008, it's been a major chart success and brought Enya's total album sales to over 70 million.

• published: 06 Oct 2013