Editing Enya (section)

===1985–1989: ''The Celts'' and ''Watermark''===
[[File:Enya logo.svg|thumb|Enya's stylised signature logo, designed by [[Laurence Dunmore]]]]
In 1985, producer [[Tony McAuley]] asked Enya to contribute a track for the six-part BBC television documentary series ''[[The Celts (1987 TV series)|The Celts]]''.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ByQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT4|title=...Newsline... Ireland|page=9|first=Ken|last=Stewart|date=16 November 1985|magazine=Billboard|volume=97|access-date=4 August 2016}}</ref> She had already written a Celtic-influenced song called "March of the Celts", and Nicky Ryan submitted it to the project.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Bl95RUlwY&t=249s |title=Enya - A Life In Music - Part 1 |date=2008-04-19 |last=EnyaFanClub |access-date=2025-02-09 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Each episode was to feature a different composer at first, but director David Richardson liked her track so much that he had Enya score the entire series.<ref name=geffenpress1989/><ref>{{Cite journal |date=January 2001 |title=On Her Shore: An Exclusive Interview with Enya |url=http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/adwr-17.htm |url-status=dead |journal=Inside Borders |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911031530/http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/adwr-17.htm |archive-date=11 September 2016 |access-date=23 July 2016}}</ref> Enya recorded 72 minutes of music at Aigle Studio and the BBC studios in [[Wood Lane]], London, without recording to the picture. She was required to portray certain themes and ideas that the producers wanted; however, in contrast with ''The Frog Prince'', she worked with little interference, which granted her freedom to establish the sound<ref name=tracks1989/> that she would adopt throughout her future career, signified by layered vocals, keyboard-oriented music, and percussion with elements of Celtic, classical, church, and folk music.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warnermusic.com.au/enya|publisher=Warner Music Australia|title=Enya|access-date=14 August 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703130406/http://www.warnermusic.com.au/enya|archive-date=3 July 2009}}</ref>

In March 1987, two months before ''The Celts'' aired, a 40-minute selection of Enya's score was released as her debut solo album, ''[[Enya (album)|Enya]]'', by [[BBC Records]] in the United Kingdom,<ref name="hotpress1986" /> with the [[Atlantic Records]] release in the United States in 1986. The latter promoted it with a [[New-age music|new-age]] imprint on the packaging, which Nicky thought was 'a cowardly thing for them to do'.<ref name="sundaychronicle1989" /> The album gained enough public attention to reach number 8 on the [[Irish Albums Chart]] and number 69 on the [[UK Albums Chart]].<ref name="UKchart">{{Cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/29512/enya/|title=Official Charts: Enya|publisher=Official Charts|access-date=3 July 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160713144026/http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/29512/enya/|archive-date=13 July 2016}}</ref> "[[I Want Tomorrow]]" was released as Enya's first single.<ref name="hotpress1986">{{Cite journal|title=Enya: The Latest Score|first=Bill|last=Graham|year=1986|journal=Hot Press|url=http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-1.htm|access-date=3 January 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045348/http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> "[[Boadicea (song)|Boadicea]]" was later sampled by [[the Fugees]] on their 1996 song "[[Ready or Not (Fugees song)|Ready or Not]]"; the group neither sought permission nor gave credit. Enya took legal action and the group subsequently gave her credit; they paid a fee of approximately $3 million. Later in 1987, Enya appeared on [[Sinéad O'Connor]]'s debut album ''[[The Lion and the Cobra]]'', reciting Psalm 91 in Irish on the track "Never Get Old"<ref name="hotpress1988">{{Cite journal|title=Growing With the Flow|first=Niall|last=Stokes|date=1 December 1988|journal=Hot Press|url=http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-5.htm|access-date=3 July 2016|archive-date=18 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018043824/http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-5.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> which Enya later posted the words of as her tribute message to Sinéad following her passing in July 2023[https://x.com/official_enya/status/1684968803979956224 .]

Several weeks after the release of ''Enya'', Enya secured a recording contract with [[Warner Music Group|Warner Music UK]] after [[Rob Dickins]], the label's chairman and a fan of Clannad, took a liking to ''Enya'' and found himself playing it 'every night before I went to bed.'<ref name="hotpressoctober1988">{{Cite journal|journal=Hot Press|date=6 October 1988|title=Going with the Flow|first=Niall|last=Stokes|volume=331 |issue=6156 |page=481 |doi=10.1038/331481a0 |bibcode=1988Natur.331..481L |access-date=1 January 2016|url=http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-2.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101834/http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> He later met Enya and the Ryans at a chance meeting at the [[Irish Recorded Music Association]] award ceremony in Dublin, where he learned that Enya had entered negotiations with a rival label. Dickins seized the opportunity and signed her, in doing so granting her wish to write and record with artistic freedom, minimal interference from the label, and without set deadlines to finish albums.<ref name="sundaychronicle1989">{{Cite news|title=Interview with Enya|first=Tom|last=Lanham|newspaper=The Sunday Chronicle|year=1989|url=http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-12.htm|access-date=2 January 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114015/http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-12.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="orangecoast1992">{{Cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BEEAAAAMBAJ&q=enya+shepherd+moons&pg=PA120|journal=Orange Coast|title=The Transcendent Sounds of Enya|date=March 1992|first=Keith|last=Tuber|pages=120, 122|access-date=1 January 2016}}</ref> Dickins said: 'Sometimes you sign an act to make money, and sometimes you sign an act to make music. This was the latter... I just wanted to be involved with this music.'<ref name="billboard1994">{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAgEAAAAMBAJ&q=enya+shepherd+moons&pg=PA119|magazine=Billboard|date=23 July 1994|title=Ireland's Enya Strikes a Universal Chord|first=Thom|last=Duffy|pages=11, 119}}</ref> Enya left Atlantic and signed with the Warner-led [[Geffen Records]] to handle her American distribution.<ref name="sundaychronicle1989" />

When asked about whether women in pop have a hard time, she responded 'yes, they do. Definitely.' However, Enya has considered her position as a composer rather than just a vocalist to be an advantage 'because I write and perform much of the music, I'm taken more seriously than the girls who just walk into a studio, do a vocal and that's it. I can't even ''imagine'' what that would be like.'<ref>{{Cite web|date=2005-03-07|title='Ere ain'ya Enya?!?|url=http://www.enya.org/p_trans2/p008.htm|access-date=2023-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050307093125/http://www.enya.org/p_trans2/p008.htm|archive-date=7 March 2005}}</ref>

{{listen
| filename     = enyalaetha.ogg
| title        = "Na Laetha Geal M'óige" (1988)
| description  = A sample of "Na Laetha Geal M'óige" (translates to The Brighter Days of My Youth) an Irish-language song from Enya's breakthrough album, ''[[Watermark (Enya album)|Watermark]]'' (1988).
| format       = [[Ogg]]
}}
With the [[Greenlight|green light]] to produce a new album, Enya recorded ''[[Watermark (Enya album)|Watermark]]'' from June 1987 to April 1988.<ref name=geffenpress1989/> It was initially recorded in analogue at Aigle before Dickins requested to have it re-recorded digitally at [[Orinoco Studios]] in [[Bermondsey]], London.<ref>{{cite episode|title=Enya|series=Song to Soul|date=16 March 2016|number=107|network=BS-TBS|time=24:35–25–10|language=ja, en|url=http://www.bs-tbs.co.jp/songtosoul/}}</ref>

''Watermark'' was released in September 1988 and became an unexpected hit, reaching number 5 in the United Kingdom<ref name=UKchart/> and number 25 on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] in the United States following its release there in January 1989.<ref name=sundaychronicle1989/><ref name=USalbumchart>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/artist/301786/enya/chart?f=305&sort=date|title=Enya: Chart History|magazine=Billboard|access-date=3 July 2016}}</ref> Its lead single, "[[Orinoco Flow]]", was the last song written for the album. It was not intended to be a single at first, but Enya and the Ryans chose it after Dickins jokingly asked for a single; he knew that Enya's music was not made for the Top 40 chart. Dickins and engineer [[Ross Cullum]] are referenced in the song's lyrics.<ref name=watermark2009/> "Orinoco Flow" became an international top 10 hit and was number one in the United Kingdom for three weeks,<ref name=UKchart/> and is credited with bringing new-age music to the mainstream market in America.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/lists/number-24-hot-100-hits-2024/dont-worry-baby-the-beach-boys/|title=24 No. 24 Billboard Hot 100 Hits for '24: John Legend, Billy Joel, Carrie Underwood & More|magazine=Billboard|last=Trust|first=Gary|date=4 January 2024}}</ref> The new-found success propelled Enya to international fame and she received endorsement deals and offers to use her music in television commercials<ref name=recordmirror1989>{{Cite news|title=Stormy Weather|first=Steve|last=Masters|date=10 June 1989|newspaper=Record Mirror|url=http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-26.htm|access-date=3 January 2016|archive-date=6 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206064057/http://enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-26.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> She spent a year traveling worldwide to promote the album which increased her exposure through interviews, appearances, and live performances.<ref name=hotpress1989>{{Cite journal|title=Around the World in 300 Days|first1=Enya|last1=Brennan|first2=Roma|last2=Ryan|date=December 1989|journal=Hot Press|access-date=5 January 2016|url=http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-29.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185309/http://www.enyabookofdays.com/articles/wm-29.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>