How many albums has Enya sold worldwide?
Enya has sold an estimated more than 80 million albums worldwide, making her the best-selling Irish solo artist and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after U2.
Questions about Enya
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the fictional language Loxian that Enya sings in?
Loxian is a fictional language created by Enya's lyricist Roma Ryan, first used on the 2005 album Amarantine. It has no official syntax; its vocabulary was formed by Enya singing song notes and Roma writing their phonetic spelling. Roma also developed a fictional culture and history for the Loxian people, imagined as inhabitants of another planet.
What Grammy Awards has Enya won?
Enya has won four Grammy Awards, all in the Best New Age Album category. Her first was in 1993 for Shepherd Moons.
Why did Enya leave the Irish band Clannad?
Enya left Clannad in 1982 after a band meeting during a Swiss tour in which manager Nicky Ryan raised concerns about excessive drinking by members and was voted out. Enya chose to leave with Ryan and his partner Roma, having felt confined in the group and not involved in composing the music.
What is the connection between Enya and The Lord of the Rings films?
Enya wrote and performed two songs for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) at the request of director Peter Jackson. The songs were "Aníron", sung in Tolkien's fictional language Sindarin, and "May It Be", sung in English and Tolkien's language Quenya. "May It Be" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, and Enya performed it live at the 74th Academy Awards in March 2002.
Where did Enya grow up and what language did she speak at home?
Enya grew up in Gweedore, County Donegal, an Irish-speaking region in north-west Ireland. Irish was her first language, and she has said she can express feeling more directly in Irish than in English.