And in a lot of cases, it’s people who are so busy with their lifestyle. “I read a lot of the mail I get, and it’s from people of all different ages, which is strange-young children, teenagers, married couples, older people. “I have a lot of opinions about now,” she says. These days, though, Enya bristles with confidence as she launches into a spirited defense of her work. Even neutral observers find it remarkable that her music has achieved so much success. When “Shepherd Moons” was released four years ago, there had been a suspicion that “Watermark” was a one-off fluke, and at the time Enya seemed less assertive and confident Nicky Ryan sat in on her interviews, and she frequently deferred to him.Įven now Enya has her critics, who call her work soporific, pretty, tinkling, essentially little more than a superior form of elevator music they assume her fans draw easy solace from its vaguely spiritual feel. She is 34, a dark, slim, strikingly attractive woman with a demure manner and mournful eyes, dressed rather formally, in a deep-blue velvet jacket and black velvet pants. In an upstairs listening lounge, Enya stands before a window looking on the verdant Wicklow Mountains. Here, on a large spread behind security gates, is the home of Enya’s producer, engineer and co-arranger Nicky Ryan, his wife, Roma (who is Enya’s lyricist), and their two daughters.Ī separate building on the estate houses the Aigle recording studio (the word is French for “eagle”) where Enya and the Ryans hole up for years on end to create their aural extravagances. Van Morrison may have been the Irish artist chosen to serenade President Clinton on his recent trip to Ireland, but the venerable Morrison does not sell records like Enya.Ĭlearly something remarkable is happening-and largely it is happening in this southern suburb of Dublin, an affluent coastal resort that is also home to Irish rock aristocrats such as U2’s Bono. Indeed, the only Irish act to have sold more records than Enya is U2-and that Dublin group has been around more than twice as long. These are the sort of statistics that spell “phenomenon” loud and clear. That makes some 20 million records sold in seven years.

Sales for her new album, “The Memory of Trees,” are equally healthy-six weeks after its release it is already at the 3 million mark, with nearly 400,000 in the United States and the rest mainly in the 14 countries where her other albums went platinum. Her 1988 album, “Watermark,” has sold 8 million copies worldwide its successor, 1991’s “Shepherd Moons,” did even better, selling almost 9 million and spending an astonishing 199 weeks on the U.S. Irish singer Enya has pursued just this policy-and it has made her one of the planet’s top-selling artists.

Sounds like a recipe for not selling records, right?

Enya celtic music