The New Age star has managed to be something almost impossible these days: a very private celebrity, writes Rahel Aima/theoutline.com in this story.
Rahel Aima:
“Last summer, I got really excited about a story that had it all: miraculous cures, area cannibals, Florida, and Enya. A noise complaint had been made in Miami, drawing police to a cluttered basement from which Enya’s New Age banger “Only Time” could be heard thundering. Inside, they encountered three cannibals sitting in a circle on the floor. The trio were ritualistically chanting in between bites of human flesh, which they believed to cure diabetes and depression.
If the picture sounds a little phony, that’s because it was technically fake. The neighborhood in question, a very Stravinskian “Vernal Heights,” didn’t even exist; the story was broken by the now-defunct satirical site Miami Gazette. But I say technically, because when it comes to Enya, I’m prepared to believe anything about her and the way people use her music to tap into another world. We know so little about her; she never tours and grants interviews so rarely that details are few and far between. Everyone has a vague idea of Enya, an amorphous entity that hovers in your peripheral cultural vision. She is like a sentient wind chime, all around us and always out of reach.
Born Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, Enya began her career by singing backup vocals and playing keyboards in the family folk band, appropriately named Clannad, before branching off on her own. After her demo tape gained some traction, the BBC invited her to soundtrack their six-part miniseries The Celts, a selection of which became her self-titled debut album. It charted respectably, but it wasn’t until the 1988 release of her second album Watermark that her global domination began. In late 2001, just as she was slated to appear all over the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, the newly-released “Only Time” was picked up by broadcast media as the go-to anthem in the wake of 9/11. To date, its parent album A Day Without Rain remains the bestselling New Age album of all time.”
Read the complete story by Rahel Aima here. Highly recommended!
Above picture by s_bukley – Bigstockphoto.com. Used under license.