The 10 Best Enya Songs of All-Time
The Irish-born new-age singer most commonly known as Enya was born in Dore of County Donegal, Ireland on May 17, 1961. Her professional music career started off by performing Celtic music with the band Clannad before moving forward as a soloist during the first half of the 1980s. To date, Enya is the best-selling solo artist coming out of the Irish nation with over 80 million albums sold worldwide, and in ten different languages. She credits her parents in the development of her musical talent as they were musicians themselves. Enya, along with her siblings, performed with her mother in the church choir throughout her childhood and also took up piano lessons. The popularity of Enya’s hauntingly beautiful vocals at a global level not only epitomized her success as one of the most renowned vocalists of all time but attracted a few stalkers who took their obsession with the singer a bit too far. Already one preferring to live as private a life as possible, after a break-in incident that resulted in 2005, Enya took a three-year break from the music scene and purchased herself a secluded home in southern France.
From 1989 until 2017, Enya has been nominated for a multitude of music awards worldwide. The majority of those nominations resulted in winning in the categories she was nominated for, including World’s Best Selling Irish Artist in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2006 with the World Music Awards. She also won Best New Age Album with the Grammy Awards in 1993, 1997, 2002. and 2007. Throughout Enya’s impressive discographic timeline, she has put forth a total of eight studio albums, three compilation albums, and twenty-one singles. Every single studio album has received a multitude of certifications. The most commercially successful was (A Day Without Rain) after it was released on November 21, 2000. It became 7x Platinum with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as 8x Platinum with Music Canada (MC), and anywhere from single to triple platinum among various nations worldwide, including double Platinum with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
10. Amarantine
(Amarantine) is the leading track from the 2005 album of the same name. The album itself won a Grammy Award in 2007 for Best New Age Album, as well as International Album of the Year by the Japan Gold Disc Awards in 2006. The song charted at its best with France’s National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing by placing thirteenth. With the US Billboard Hot Adult Hot Single Sales chart, it peaked at tenth spot.
9. Boadicea
Humming from start to finish, Enya’s 1987 single (Boadicea) serves as the background piece that made Mario Winans’s single (I Don’t Wanna Know) the most successful he’s ever released. Boadicea is the leading track of the album of the same name and is played often as the song of choice for many fans who use it as a tribute piece towards a subject matter dearest to their hearts.
8. Evening Falls…
Enya’s second studio album (Watermark) was released in 1988 and became a multi-platinum success with nearly four million copies sold worldwide. The single (Evening Falls…) peaked as high as third place with the Irish Singles Chart and charted at number twenty with the UK Singles Chart. This highly spiritual song is one of Enya’s most melodic pieces that continue to be favored by fans of the new age genre.
7. Caribbean Blue
In 1991, Enya’s single (Caribbean Blue) charts globally with the exception of Austria and France. Coming from her 1991 multi-platinum album (Shepherd Moons), the song charted in eighth place with the Irish Singles Chart and thirteenth with the UK Singles Chart.
6. Anywhere Is
Coming from the album (The Memory of Trees) is the single (Anywhere Is), which charts as high as number seven with the UK Singles Chart and at number eight with the Irish Singles Chart and Austria’s Top 40. The single also earned Single Certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
5. Drifting (Instrumental)
At the 2007 Grammy Awards, the instrumental piano song (Drifting) earns a nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. While Enya’s vocals are not the main centerpiece, her talent as a pianist is. Like most of Enya’s music, there is a heavy mix of haunting beauty and timelessness that deservedly gives her the amount of critical acclaim for this song and its album (Amarantine). The album did win a Grammy Award in 2007 for Best New Age Album, as well as International Album of the Year with the Japan Gold Disc Awards in 2006.
4. May It Be
Fans of the trilogy movie series (Lord of the Rings) will most likely remember Enya’s 2002 single (May It Be) as it played at the end of the first movie (The Fellowship of the Ring). While most of the music charts didn’t rank May It Be very high, this wasn’t the case with Germany’s GfK Entertainment Charts as it peaked to number one spot. It also received a number of nominations in 2003 such as Best Song Written for Visual Media by the Grammy Awards, Best Original Song by the Academy Awards, and Best Original Song by the Golden Globes. May It Be did win the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Song in 2001, as well as Best Original Song from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
3. Orinoco Flow
As far as the global music charts is concerned, Enya’s (Orinoco Flow) is the most successful. It comes from her multi-platinum album (Watermark), which was first released on September 19, 1988. To date, nearly four million copies of this album have been sold and Orinoco Flow has also received BPI’s Silver Certification. On the UK Singles Chart, the Irish Singles Chart, the Dutch Single Top 100, and the Swiss Hitparade, Orinoco Flow peaked at the number one spot. In 1990, it won the BMI Award for Citation of Achievement.
2. I Don’t Wanna Know (featuring Mario Winans and P. Daddy)
Mario Winans’s 2004 album (Hurt No More) featured the most successful single (I Don’t Wanna Know), which became a chart-topping hit globally, including the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Throughout most of the nations worldwide, I Don’t Wanna Know cracked into the top ten of their music charts and still remains a cult favorite to this day. Since its release, nearly one million copies have been sold where the song has become certified Silver with BPI, Gold with RIAA, Belgium, and New Zealand, and Platinum with Australia’s ARIA. While Enya herself doesn’t actually sing in the song, her background inclusion still counts as it contributed heavily to the success of Winan’s single.
1. Only Time
Coming from the album (A Day Without Rain) is the single (Only Time), which has since earned Enya Gold certification throughout the European nations of Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. It also contributed towards the album becoming the most commercially successful with over 20 million copies sold worldwide. Only Time was also the most awarded single for Enya, earning wins Germany’s ECHO Award in 2002 for Best International Single of the Year, as well as the Broadcast Data Systems Certified Spin Award for achieving 300,000 spins in 2002. In 2003, Only Time also won the BMI Award for Citation of Achievement. On the music charts,
