Enya was born into a musical family. Her father, Leo Brennan, was the leader of the Slieve Foy Band, a popular Irish show band; her mother was an amateur musician. Most important to Enya's career were her siblings, who formed Clannad in 1976 with several of their uncles. Enya joined the band as a keyboardist in 1979, and contributed to several of the group's popular television soundtracks. In 1982, she left Clannad, claiming that she was uninterested in following the pop direction the group had begun to pursue. Within a few years she was commissioned, along with producer/arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, to provide the score for a BBC-TV series called The Celts. The soundtrack was released in 1986 as her eponymous solo album.
Enya didn't receive much notice, but Enya and the Ryans' second effort, Watermark, became a surprise hit upon its release in 1988. "Orinoco Flow," the first single, became a number one hit in Britain, helping the album eventually sell eight million copies worldwide. Enya spent the years following the success of Watermark rather quietly; her most notable appearance was a cameo on Sinéad O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. She finally released Shepherd Moons, her follow-up to Watermark, in 1991. Shepherd Moons was even more successful than its predecessor, eventually selling over ten million copies worldwide; it entered the U.S. charts at number 17 and remained in the Top 200 for almost four years.
Again, Enya was slow to follow up on the success of Shepherd Moons, spending nearly four years working on her fourth album. The record, entitled Memory of Trees, was released in December of 1995. Memory of Trees entered the U.S. charts at number nine and sold over two million copies within its first year of release. In 1997 came the release of a greatest-hits collection, Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya, which featured two new songs. Enya's first album of new material in five years, A Day Without Rain, was released in late 2000. In 2001, she contributed material to the first film in Peter Jackson's award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, scoring a hit with the single "May It Be." Amarantine, her first full-length recording since Day Without Rain, followed in November of 2005, and has so far sold nearly five million copies.
(Much of the above content of this biography has been taken from http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifoxqe5ldhe~T1.)
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, her song "Only Time" (from A Day Without Rain) was used as a backdrop in many radio and TV reports about the attacks. She initially frowned upon this use, especially when many bootlegged versions of Only Time mixed with sound effects from the attack began to appear.
Enya eventually agreed to release a special edition of the song with funds going to the families of victims. Many Enya fans, however, are resentful that her music has been linked with the attacks; an example of this occurred on a 2002 appearance on CNN's Larry King Live when images of battle in Afghanistan were shown on screen as she performed "May It Be", a song with little war connection. This sparked some complaints within Enya's fan community.
Enya is admittedly a slow worker when it comes to composing music. As a result, fans have had to wait as long as five years between albums. In September 2004, a new song, set to words from a Japanese poem Roma Ryan had written and called "Sumiregusa" ("Wild Violet") was unveiled in Japan as part of an advertising campaign for Panasonic. In announcing the new recording, Warner Music Japan stated that Enya's next album was scheduled for release (in Japan at least) in mid-November. Enya issued a press release on her official Web site on 19 September stating that this was a mistake and no new album was immediately forthcoming.
Enya was awarded the World's Best-Selling Irish Act award at the World Music Awards in London on 19 November 2006. On February 11, 2007 Amarantine won Enya her fourth Grammy when it was awarded the Best New Age Album award.
Recent Releases
In November of 2005, a new album, entitled Amarantine, was released. It won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for 2007.
In 2006, Enya released several Christmas-themed CDs with newly recorded material. On October 10, 2006, Sounds of the Season was released containing six songs: the previously released "Oíche Chiúin" (a.k.a. "Silent Night") and "Amid the Falling Snow", new recordings of the standards "Adeste Fideles" (a.k.a. "Oh Come All Ye Faithful") and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as well as two original songs, "Christmas Secrets" and "The Magic of the Night". This CD was released only in the United States in an exclusive partnership with the NBC television network and the Target department store chain.
In later November two new editions of Amarantine were released. In North America, it was reissued as Amarantine - Special Christmas Edition with a second disc containing the four new Christmas songs previously issued on Sounds of the Season (the original album already had "Amid the Falling Snow" while "Oíche Chiúin" is a recording dating back to 1988 which had already been featured on numerous collections). The UK received a deluxe version of this release (Amarantine - The UK Special Edition) which also included three postcards and a copy of Roma Ryan's book Water Shows the Hidden Heart which is referenced on the original album. Canadian fans could choose from the Special Christmas Edition of Amarantine, or an EP entitled Christmas Secrets which only contained the four new songs.
Coinciding with these releases was the relaunch of Enya's official website on Nov. 2, 2006. On November 16, 2006 Enya mentioned on ITV1's that she is working on a new album. A month later, in a Japanese interview Enya said that the album will be a complete Christmas album and it will be released in the winter of 2007. There is no schedule for the release date itself.
Enya's album, "And Winter Came", was released in November 2008. It contains twelve tracks - ten brand new songs plus a newly recorded choral rendering of Oiche Chiuin (Silent Night) and a stunning version of the traditional Christmas hymn 'O come, o come Emmanuel'
07- Fallen Embers
Enya Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All the stars were fallen embers.
Once, when night seemed forever
I was with you.
Once, in the care of morning
In the air was all belonging.
Once, when that day was dawning
How far we are from morning,
How far we are
And the stars shining through the darkness,
Falling in the air.
Once, as the night was leaving
Into us our dreams were weaving.
Once, all dreams were worth keeping.
I was with you.
Once, when our hearts were singing,
I was with you.
Enya's song "Fallen Embers" is a melancholic and sentimental ode to a past love. The lyrics evoke a sense of longing for a time gone by, when the world seemed full of promises and possibilities. In the first stanza, Enya describes a time when "all the stars were fallen embers", a clear visual image of a night sky that has lost its brightness and is slowly fading away. The lyrics suggest a deeper meaning as Enya reflects on how fleeting love can be, just like the stars that once shone.
In the second stanza, Enya reminisces about an idyllic moment in time when "the air was all belonging" and "in the care of morning" she was with her lover. She longs for the feeling of belonging that was once shared, a feeling that she cannot seem to find again. The idea of belonging is further reinforced when she sings "once, when our hearts were singing", a clear image of two people in love, happy and carefree. The lyrics hint at the loss of something once great, leaving the listener filled with a sense of nostalgia and yearning.
The chorus of the song serves as a reminder of the distance between past and present, and how we can never truly go back to what once was. Despite this distance, the stars continue to shine through the darkness, serving as a symbol of hope amidst the gloom.
Line by Line Meaning
Once, as my heart remembers,
I recall a time when my heart reminisces,
All the stars were fallen embers.
Every star in the sky appeared like burnt-out pieces of wood,
Once, when night seemed forever
On a night that felt perpetual,
I was with you.
You were by my side, making everything feel alright.
Once, in the care of morning
At a time when morning watchfully cared for us,
In the air was all belonging.
The atmosphere had become our possession.
Once, when that day was dawning
During the sunrise of a former day,
I was with you.
You were my companion, and I felt complete.
How far we are from morning,
We have come a long way from the comfort of daybreak,
How far we are
Things have drastically changed between us,
And the stars shining through the darkness,
But the stars continue to twinkle amidst the gloom,
Falling in the air.
Like they are tumbling from the sky.
Once, as the night was leaving
While the moonlight was fading away,
Into us our dreams were weaving.
We had intertwined our aspirations and thoughts within each other.
Once, all dreams were worth keeping.
Back then, it felt like every dream was worth holding onto.
I was with you.
At that moment, you were my source of strength.
Once, when our hearts were singing,
In a time when our hearts were singing in unison,
I was with you.
You were there, and life was perfect.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: EITHNE NI BHRAONAIN, NICKY RYAN, ROMA RYAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind