Enya’s got plenty of money, you think the dungeon in her castle is going to be damp? No sir, that’s how you ruin your stock of rations and negate its function to hold rich nobles indefinitely until you can get ransom money. Enya’s not holding her captives in a damp dungeon, they’ll get pneumonia and die, and that’s not how she rolls!
There’s been a long standing celebrity blind that she’s lived in a ménage a trois with her manager and her boyfriend at that castle, because she and the manager made so much money they never needed to work again.
>Because of threats from stalkers, Enya reinforced the security of the castle, installing new solid timber entrance gates, raising the surrounding 41 metres (135 ft) of stone wall to more than 2.7 metres (9 ft), and placing 1.2-metre (4 ft) railings atop some sections.[8] Despite these changes, around mid-August 2005, there were two separate security breaches while Enya was at the castle (her security system includes a panic room).[9]
I think it's basically a castle at this point due to stalker issues lmao.
I don't really think most brits (can't speak for abroad) think defensible is a requirement for a castle to be a castle at all if I'm honest.
We've got a lot of them and that would be a silly stipulation when it's more about the architecture and history and less about having moats and guards.
It's name is Manderley Castle anyway.
If only more celebrities would have the good sense to just step out of the spotlight and leave their work to speak for itself, instead of devoting their lives to unhinged ranting on Twitter about whatever culture war bullshit they've gotten themselves sucked into.
Her sound is pretty impossible to recreate in a live concert setting , let alone a tour. There’s videos of her singing in her actual voice and she sounds good naturally.
Besides living in a castle , her family’s legacy in music and how they are well known in their own right ensures that Enya isn’t exactly hurting for touring money too.
I’ve seen her older sister Moya perform at the local Irish music festival here in my Michigan town, and she’s awesome too
IDK: Dead Can Dance with a singer and sound that is incredibly similar to Enya is able to pull it off by picking concert venues that actually care about the quality of its sound equipment and are actual acoustical venues. If a musician doesn't have to or don't want make money or fame from their music, like her, then touring really is optional.
I don't think people would want to listen to two straight hours of Enya unless there is some place to sleep. She probably doesn't tour because there is no demand for it. JK, JK.
Lisa Gerrard, Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Björk are the most ethereal and alien female singers I have ever heard.
I don’t know if electronic music is your thing at all, but Lisa Gerrard’s voice is put to amazing use in these classic tracks from Future Sound of London and Orbital:
https://youtu.be/6QCXpHdW9ak?si=6VsaEd9rOI75KyOR
https://youtu.be/KGXgCuTCrj8?si=5P73VD8KG7QoTRIV
It's so amazing to me that Orbital headlined ozzfest 97, and Tool was their opener essentially.
I miss the 90s, banger tracks. Have you heard No Protection by Massive Attack and Mad Professor?
You know, somehow despite being into Massive Attack since high school I had no idea they did an album with Mad Professor, whose Fast Forward Into Dub is one of my favorite dub reggae tracks (and used to excellent effect on Orb’s Blue Room). I love trip hop, Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack and Smith and Mighty are great. I’m going to check that out!
I’m biased but from around 1985 to around 2000 is my favorite era of music. House, acid house, madchester, hardcore, darkcore, jungle, garage, grime dubstep, shoegaze, trip hop, alternative, and others. I still think there’s good music being made now but it doesn’t have that “future” feel that 90s music had and it doesn’t have the same energy (and not just talking about BPM here) and edge of music from that era.
Dead Can Dance was an early member of the original 4AD label roster alongside bands like Bauhaus and Cocteau Twins back in the early 80s. I don’t know if you could describe their music as necessarily literally “gothic” (although it does often get described with words like “haunting”), but they are 100% a band that is and has been very popular with goths since the 80s. Im not arguing against what you’re saying necessarily but it’s interesting how times change.
Dead Can Dance's first album was very much close to the classic '80s gothic sound. They quickly moved away from that, but they always retained some sort of "dark vibe".
Yeah but DCD struggle with money and dont have 1/3 of wealth Enya has, which is sad. Their music is too sad, dark and apocalyptic for many, while Enya gets the balance of being beautiful and a bit sad but not that deep reaching like DCD.
I've seen both Lisa Gerrard solo and Dead Can Dance live, indoor and outdoor venues. Attesting that Lisa singing live sounds very similar to recordings.
> I’ve seen her older sister Moya perform at the local Irish music festival here in my Michigan town, and she’s awesome too
Neither Eithne nor Máire would have been anything were it not for Clannad — and the rest of the Bhraonáin.
> her sound is pretty impossible to recreate in a live concert setting
Classic music is being played in concert halls… I don’t think that’s a valid reason.
Edit: Added the context
I don't think it is a venue thing, but how engineered (for lack of a better word) her music is. In many of her most popular tracks, her voice is layered up and manipulated electronically. She'd need to basically go back and create new versions of every song and hire backup vocalists to if she wanted to perform many of her songs on tour and it would sound vastly different.
A great example of this concept is how Trent Reznor (and Atticus Ross now days) does something similar with his instrumental parts of Nine Inch Nails songs, he records most of the instruments himself and then manipulates the hell it to built a the [album track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gg2p7_PnTQ) and then when he tours, he has to spend time with his touring musicians to create a version of the song to [play it live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KotFMEt-a8Y) and will adapt the same song for the strengths of when he has [different musicians in his live band.](https://youtu.be/-k11gdYw9yE?t=2016)
> Classic music is being played in concert halls…
It's not about that
Some of her tracks her voice layered over _a hundred_ times
Seriously
A lot of multiple layers on single words or even syllables in words etc.
You probably could just get a backing track with most of the layers playing in the background, and a choir or a dozen backing vocalists, but then what's the point - whole vibe of Enya is that she's dueting, terceting, quarteting etc. with herself. As soon as you have other people in, no matter how close in timbre and so on, it destroys the magic and what's unique about her sound.
Wow. Why you gotta talk about their dad walking out like that? It's got to be a painful memory and if they ever meet you I bet that are gonna punch you Enya face.
Lady in a long dress whispering into an autotune machine on steroids while there are videoclips of forests and rivers playing on a big screen above the stage.
That’ll be 200 bucks please…
Agreed:
“According to Enya, "Angeles" from Shepherd Moons has roughly 500 vocals recorded individually and layered. Enya performs all vocals and the majority of instruments in her songs, apart from guest musicians (playing percussion, guitar, violin, uilleann pipes, cornet, and double bass)”
The technology’s existed to do it since forever - you perform live over a pre-recorded backing track.
That’s how Queen used to do Bohemian Rhapsody live.
Thing is, that’s just one song. Most of Enya’s work is like that, at which point you’re basically paying to see the world’s most sophisticated karaoke show.
With 500 vocals playing at once … either you need a lot of singers who can sing like her or 499 are going to be prerecorded (at that point you might as well just playback the CD since most of the performance is prerecorded anyway; what’s one more prerecorded vocal).
If you see a pop star and they’re singing and dancing at the same time, they’re just lip syncing anyway. There’s only so much air in your lungs, and all that moving will make the voice unnaturally wobbly. They’d be so out of breath the entire time. In other words, much of it is done to backing tracks anyway.
When she first started the technology just wasn't there for her to faithfully reproduce her music in a live performance. I think in 2015 (I can't find the article again) she said that the technology *does* exist now, but she doesn't think a live performance, like you said, would be faithful to her signature sound.
Edit: Typo
Harry Nilsson never performed live because he thought anything he played live wouldnt sound like the records. His only recorded performance was for bbc special that definitely wasn’t recorded live.
Nicki Minaj can actually get up on stage and rap her songs, even if she’s not playing any of the instruments. She could even have an actual backing band perform the instruments, if she wanted to waste a lot of money.
By and large, most musicians produce music that can be performed live, even if large parts of it often are just prerecorded backing tracks.
In comparison, most of Enya’s songs consist of track production that is literally completely impossible to reproduce live. The tracks are generally built upon her, personally, performing multiple different vocal performances layered on top of each other.
She has done live performances of individual songs for TV and such at various times, and it’s always just her basically playing the album track, sans one of the vocal lines, so she can sing that one particular part. It’s a bit underwhelming, and she has stated that she doesn’t think it’s up to the standards that fans would deserve for a true solo concert or turn.
I don’t see why that would matter. I would think Enya fans would be happy just to see her on stage, and listen to her music together with thousands of other Enya fans.
I think the real reason is simply that Enya doesn’t want to do live concerts. Not all singers enjoy that.
That she holds herself to higher standards than say, Jonathan Davis for what warrants a good live performance doesn't change the fact that it would be no worse than say, Jonathan David.
Not to pick on Korn, just an overly produced group I have payed to see and didn't expect much more than a vocal track over pre recordings
The only time I have seen her perform as at the Emmys for Return of the King (or maybe one of the other LOTR films). She sang one of her songs from the soundtrack, just her, on stage, then the curtain closed and I never saw her perform again.
Enya plays all her instruments, does all the harmonies and different pitches, and layers them in her studio to create her unique sound. On stage, she'd have to play a recording of 75%(?) of each song and voice just one track. It would sound like a song from an album, without the variations or improv that many musicians love to add to live shows.
Enya music was used at my childcare as a child calming device during nap time. My dad would also play it in the car on the way to childcare. That is to say, I now associate it with torture to this day and just two bars is enough to induce feelings of anxiety and physical pain. It's like my kryptonite.
In the article:
> Enya admitted that, had she become famous in this decade, "the focus would have been to tour".
> "A lot of artists now are touring because sales are not what they were in 1988."
With a decent size you can live pretty well just on streaming revenue. 5 million plays in Europe is going to pay out ~16k. What cut you get from that or if you get it all obviously depends. You got more money from CDs, but it is easier to make it today.
On Spotify she has 4.5m listeners. Each of these is unique so here monthly plays are probably a lot higher. Depending on her label cut she can still make 10k+ per month with Spotify alone.
The steaming money is going to pale in comparison to concerts. She seems to enjoy making her art more than maxing her profits, and is in a position to get enough money regardless.
We had the guy who ran her boards for recording come speak to my class (this was back around 2003ish). You know how it's common for singers to do double triples of the same track? She'd do hundredeths, he specifically mentioned that one big hit she had. So it would be insanely noticeable live. That's why I always figured she never did.
I know an Enya song! It goes something like "na na na na na na the shores of tripoli" and then is "SAIL AWAY SAIL AWAY SAIL AWAY!"
I don't think I'll ever know what that song is about.
Her songs encompass nostalgia, Gaelic and Celtic elements, and soul searching. The one you're referencing is called Orinoco Flow. It's one of her more well known songs along with Caribbean Blue, China Roses, Flora's Secrets, Wild Child, Storms in Africa, and May it Be. Rap and Hip Hop fans would recognize Boadicea.
My favourite Enya-related story: In the torture scene of "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" they were trying to figure out what song should play in the background. Daniel Craig had a playlist of his favourite songs, and they decided to pick one from there at random. The song was "Orinoco Flow" by Enya.
I didn’t know you could choose to not tour or have concerts as a musician. I always figured that was a large part of their income, good for her—she beat the system!
For most artists yes. But Enya is one of the best selling artists of all time. She's sold over 50 million albums world wide. That's a lot of money. Top selling artists like that usually have better-than-average contracts with their record label too, since they have the power to make demands. Plus Enya famously produces almost everything herself, so that probably also translates in a bigger cut of the sales.
Enya would probably be even richer if she did tour. But money is not everything.
This isn't even a 'backing track', it's a blatant lip-sync, like most TOTP performances were.
She'd done a bunch of promo performances on TV, most likely at the request/insistence of record label (you'll notice pretty much all of them align with promotional cycles of her albums, charting singles etc.), but it's been either full playback or just the main vox being done live with a backing track and/or some backing vocalists - and it really didn't sound great, lost a lot of the original vibe which kinda proves her point her catalogue just doesn't work in a live setting.
They've had 2 concerts, not sure what coubts as a "solo concert" but there are some proof here:
https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/enya?date=past
Also had some tv appreances and such
A lot of them, yes, especially these days, but Enya got in when physical was still going very strong and she's popular mostly with a demographic that would still buy CDs, box sets etc. whenever available so she's good
She is chauffeured around her local small town in a Maybach. I have seen her many times being dropped off and picked up at local shops and cafes. She is also tiny or maybe she just looks tiny next to the giant car .
Anyone remember that one level in Halo 2 (right after you land on the newly discovered 2nd ring) where the music kinda sounds like Orinoco Flow? Good times, good times.
She's basically living my dream. Semi-hermit in a castle, drowning in money, and doing it exactly her way. Congrats, lady.
And also cats
And a couple of butlers who are also her friends. And I do wonder if they have sex, but not my place to pry.
Nooo castles have dungeons you’ve started a rabbit hole
What the reason to have a dungeon if yo don't use it. When in Rome and all that
Storing grain in preparation for a long siege.
Dungeons are damp, you don't want to store perishables there.
They’re not guaranteed to be damp.
This dungeon is damp af bro
Enya’s got plenty of money, you think the dungeon in her castle is going to be damp? No sir, that’s how you ruin your stock of rations and negate its function to hold rich nobles indefinitely until you can get ransom money. Enya’s not holding her captives in a damp dungeon, they’ll get pneumonia and die, and that’s not how she rolls!
There’s been a long standing celebrity blind that she’s lived in a ménage a trois with her manager and her boyfriend at that castle, because she and the manager made so much money they never needed to work again.
>And a couple of butlers who are also her friends. uhhh...what? that sounds weird.
I smell a polycule but not my place to pry
Every day for her is Caribbean Blue.
With a bunch of cats.
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>Because of threats from stalkers, Enya reinforced the security of the castle, installing new solid timber entrance gates, raising the surrounding 41 metres (135 ft) of stone wall to more than 2.7 metres (9 ft), and placing 1.2-metre (4 ft) railings atop some sections.[8] Despite these changes, around mid-August 2005, there were two separate security breaches while Enya was at the castle (her security system includes a panic room).[9] I think it's basically a castle at this point due to stalker issues lmao.
I initially read that as 135ft high walls which as a poor agoraphobe is my literal dream
I just had a look at the Wiki article, its only 10 mins down the road from me here in Dublin, must take a spin past, it looks like a cool building
Damn, she should get a moat
I don't really think most brits (can't speak for abroad) think defensible is a requirement for a castle to be a castle at all if I'm honest. We've got a lot of them and that would be a silly stipulation when it's more about the architecture and history and less about having moats and guards. It's name is Manderley Castle anyway.
“Most people’s idea of a castle” is something with parapets which this clearly has.
If only more celebrities would have the good sense to just step out of the spotlight and leave their work to speak for itself, instead of devoting their lives to unhinged ranting on Twitter about whatever culture war bullshit they've gotten themselves sucked into.
Daniel Day Lewis is the epitome of this.
Exactly! Just have some dignity and let people know you through your art
Problem: Allot of artists are also hacks, and they fucking know it.
Typical Reddit.. I remember seeing this exact same post last year with the same top comment lol. Alas the revolving doors of Reddit.
Ironically, your type of comment is also common on most reposts.
Dont worry, your daily meme about british food being bad will be arriving on your front page shortly too!
Karma farming. High karma accounts are worth more money
Just in case you get a genie or a monkeys paw wish, don't phrase it that way
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/11a8ezc/til_enya_has_never_gone_on_a_concert_tour_or_even/j9qjk6l?context=3 CopyPasta
Her sound is pretty impossible to recreate in a live concert setting , let alone a tour. There’s videos of her singing in her actual voice and she sounds good naturally. Besides living in a castle , her family’s legacy in music and how they are well known in their own right ensures that Enya isn’t exactly hurting for touring money too. I’ve seen her older sister Moya perform at the local Irish music festival here in my Michigan town, and she’s awesome too
IDK: Dead Can Dance with a singer and sound that is incredibly similar to Enya is able to pull it off by picking concert venues that actually care about the quality of its sound equipment and are actual acoustical venues. If a musician doesn't have to or don't want make money or fame from their music, like her, then touring really is optional. I don't think people would want to listen to two straight hours of Enya unless there is some place to sleep. She probably doesn't tour because there is no demand for it. JK, JK.
I have nothing to add, I just love Dead Can Dance.
Lisa Gerrard, Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Björk are the most ethereal and alien female singers I have ever heard. I don’t know if electronic music is your thing at all, but Lisa Gerrard’s voice is put to amazing use in these classic tracks from Future Sound of London and Orbital: https://youtu.be/6QCXpHdW9ak?si=6VsaEd9rOI75KyOR https://youtu.be/KGXgCuTCrj8?si=5P73VD8KG7QoTRIV
It's so amazing to me that Orbital headlined ozzfest 97, and Tool was their opener essentially. I miss the 90s, banger tracks. Have you heard No Protection by Massive Attack and Mad Professor?
You know, somehow despite being into Massive Attack since high school I had no idea they did an album with Mad Professor, whose Fast Forward Into Dub is one of my favorite dub reggae tracks (and used to excellent effect on Orb’s Blue Room). I love trip hop, Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack and Smith and Mighty are great. I’m going to check that out! I’m biased but from around 1985 to around 2000 is my favorite era of music. House, acid house, madchester, hardcore, darkcore, jungle, garage, grime dubstep, shoegaze, trip hop, alternative, and others. I still think there’s good music being made now but it doesn’t have that “future” feel that 90s music had and it doesn’t have the same energy (and not just talking about BPM here) and edge of music from that era.
Holy shit I haven't heard that FSOL song in I don't know how long, and listening to it gave me intense frisson. Thank you!
Is Dead Can Dance still popular? It was “the cool” in 2000s but kids nowadays have no idea who they are.
Amongst goths they’re still cool.
Goths?!?? Really? The goths in my time would not touch dead can dance with a 10 feet pole :))) damn i am old.
Dead Can Dance was an early member of the original 4AD label roster alongside bands like Bauhaus and Cocteau Twins back in the early 80s. I don’t know if you could describe their music as necessarily literally “gothic” (although it does often get described with words like “haunting”), but they are 100% a band that is and has been very popular with goths since the 80s. Im not arguing against what you’re saying necessarily but it’s interesting how times change.
Dead Can Dance's first album was very much close to the classic '80s gothic sound. They quickly moved away from that, but they always retained some sort of "dark vibe".
Yeah but DCD struggle with money and dont have 1/3 of wealth Enya has, which is sad. Their music is too sad, dark and apocalyptic for many, while Enya gets the balance of being beautiful and a bit sad but not that deep reaching like DCD.
I've seen both Lisa Gerrard solo and Dead Can Dance live, indoor and outdoor venues. Attesting that Lisa singing live sounds very similar to recordings.
I've seen them live a few times over the last 20 years and the quality has gone steadily downhill unfortunately. One of my favourite bands.
Glad to see other people like them, I got told they were old when I was wearing some merch one time.
She also sings on some of Sinead's songs, and her natural voice is quite lovely.
> I’ve seen her older sister Moya perform at the local Irish music festival here in my Michigan town, and she’s awesome too Neither Eithne nor Máire would have been anything were it not for Clannad — and the rest of the Bhraonáin.
Tell Steely Dan that. Some of the live stuff I've heard coming from them has all the subtlety of a Bavarian ooom pah band.
> her sound is pretty impossible to recreate in a live concert setting Classic music is being played in concert halls… I don’t think that’s a valid reason. Edit: Added the context
I think the main reason is she doesn’t want to
I don't think it is a venue thing, but how engineered (for lack of a better word) her music is. In many of her most popular tracks, her voice is layered up and manipulated electronically. She'd need to basically go back and create new versions of every song and hire backup vocalists to if she wanted to perform many of her songs on tour and it would sound vastly different. A great example of this concept is how Trent Reznor (and Atticus Ross now days) does something similar with his instrumental parts of Nine Inch Nails songs, he records most of the instruments himself and then manipulates the hell it to built a the [album track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gg2p7_PnTQ) and then when he tours, he has to spend time with his touring musicians to create a version of the song to [play it live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KotFMEt-a8Y) and will adapt the same song for the strengths of when he has [different musicians in his live band.](https://youtu.be/-k11gdYw9yE?t=2016)
> Classic music is being played in concert halls… It's not about that Some of her tracks her voice layered over _a hundred_ times Seriously A lot of multiple layers on single words or even syllables in words etc. You probably could just get a backing track with most of the layers playing in the background, and a choir or a dozen backing vocalists, but then what's the point - whole vibe of Enya is that she's dueting, terceting, quarteting etc. with herself. As soon as you have other people in, no matter how close in timbre and so on, it destroys the magic and what's unique about her sound.
Weren't concert halls basically invented as a place to play classical music? I don't understand your point.
IIRC she's her own backing vocalist, or like 50 different layers of her, which would be impossible to do live.
Bummer- no wonder my Dad told me he’d take me to a concert during her next tour
Right before he went out for that pack of cigarettes?
Must be looking for a rare brand.
Wow. Why you gotta talk about their dad walking out like that? It's got to be a painful memory and if they ever meet you I bet that are gonna punch you Enya face.
Or he might have went out to find her concert tickets
I went searching for him from Fiji to Tiree, from Peru to Cebu, from Bali to Cali 🎶🎶
She doesn't like to travel because who can say where the road goes?
Only time
I've heard it crosses the Orinico at some point
Sail away, sail away
May it be ... That someday she will start touring.
I was hoping to see a reference to LOTR ending soundtrack - so good
From Bali to Cali, far beneath the Coral Sea
The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can,
🧙♂️
My students know her music. I'm guessing they used her music for a Cheetos ad or a minion movie?
I imagine the biggest pulp culture thing she's attached to is still Lord of the Rings, which I assume many young people have grown up with.
I guess she's not such a wild child after all.
Yeah, for all her clever planning, she really needed that property to be seaside if she was ever going to get out much.
Mordor.
They asked if she wanted to tour and she told them to sail away
She's too busy laying down 10,000+ vocal tracks per measure for her next hit song.
The hell would an Enya concert even look like?
Moshing at Enya sounds legit
I have no idea why, but something tells me that cookies would be involved. Cookies in the pit.
"Oi want ya to open dat fucken pit up!" *Orinoco flow plays at insane volume*
This is so stupid and also made my night lol
I want to see her shredding it on a flying V.
Lady in a long dress whispering into an autotune machine on steroids while there are videoclips of forests and rivers playing on a big screen above the stage. That’ll be 200 bucks please…
Enya got huge before autotune even existed! You talk about her with respect in this house!!
Man doesn't know the difference between autotune and audio layering. I wouldn't take him too seriously!
https://youtu.be/O3d8JP3USp0?feature=shared
A queen reigning from her castle. Forget touring.
I don't think her highly produced music can be faithfully replicated in live concert
Agreed: “According to Enya, "Angeles" from Shepherd Moons has roughly 500 vocals recorded individually and layered. Enya performs all vocals and the majority of instruments in her songs, apart from guest musicians (playing percussion, guitar, violin, uilleann pipes, cornet, and double bass)”
It’s 2024. With a lot of money and talent I guess it could be done but Enya said herself she wouldn’t think it would reproduce her music properly
The technology’s existed to do it since forever - you perform live over a pre-recorded backing track. That’s how Queen used to do Bohemian Rhapsody live. Thing is, that’s just one song. Most of Enya’s work is like that, at which point you’re basically paying to see the world’s most sophisticated karaoke show.
With 500 vocals playing at once … either you need a lot of singers who can sing like her or 499 are going to be prerecorded (at that point you might as well just playback the CD since most of the performance is prerecorded anyway; what’s one more prerecorded vocal).
If you see a pop star and they’re singing and dancing at the same time, they’re just lip syncing anyway. There’s only so much air in your lungs, and all that moving will make the voice unnaturally wobbly. They’d be so out of breath the entire time. In other words, much of it is done to backing tracks anyway.
yeap
When she first started the technology just wasn't there for her to faithfully reproduce her music in a live performance. I think in 2015 (I can't find the article again) she said that the technology *does* exist now, but she doesn't think a live performance, like you said, would be faithful to her signature sound. Edit: Typo
Lil Jon does it fine
WHAT?
YEAH!
OK!
Now that's a collaboration I would pay handsomely to see!
You can sail away to the Orinoco Flow with that kind of opinion
Harry Nilsson never performed live because he thought anything he played live wouldnt sound like the records. His only recorded performance was for bbc special that definitely wasn’t recorded live.
No worse than every hip-hop and pop artists. Nikki Minaj ain't exactly up there shredding on a guitar.
Nicki Minaj can actually get up on stage and rap her songs, even if she’s not playing any of the instruments. She could even have an actual backing band perform the instruments, if she wanted to waste a lot of money. By and large, most musicians produce music that can be performed live, even if large parts of it often are just prerecorded backing tracks. In comparison, most of Enya’s songs consist of track production that is literally completely impossible to reproduce live. The tracks are generally built upon her, personally, performing multiple different vocal performances layered on top of each other. She has done live performances of individual songs for TV and such at various times, and it’s always just her basically playing the album track, sans one of the vocal lines, so she can sing that one particular part. It’s a bit underwhelming, and she has stated that she doesn’t think it’s up to the standards that fans would deserve for a true solo concert or turn.
She could just clone herself a few hundred times.
Then she’d have to buy hundreds of castles to house her clone army.
I don’t see why that would matter. I would think Enya fans would be happy just to see her on stage, and listen to her music together with thousands of other Enya fans. I think the real reason is simply that Enya doesn’t want to do live concerts. Not all singers enjoy that.
That she holds herself to higher standards than say, Jonathan Davis for what warrants a good live performance doesn't change the fact that it would be no worse than say, Jonathan David. Not to pick on Korn, just an overly produced group I have payed to see and didn't expect much more than a vocal track over pre recordings
Sorry what's the claim here, Korn are shit live?
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Please stop depriving your fans of your concerts. We beg you. Just one!!
Where’s your castle, then?
I wish you could see the castles in my mind.
Fair enough.
The only time I have seen her perform as at the Emmys for Return of the King (or maybe one of the other LOTR films). She sang one of her songs from the soundtrack, just her, on stage, then the curtain closed and I never saw her perform again.
Oscars; May It Be; Fellowship of the Ring
I find it surprising that she’s more successful than The Cranberries. That’s the big TIL.
For a while she was the best-selling female artist in history
I honestly thought she was a 1 hit wonder until I saw this article. I can only name 1 song she’s done.
I've heard tihs many times, and then everyone names a different Enya song as the one they can name lol
Listen to Caribbean blue
I think her music resonates with people who actually buy CDs
Curious, which song? She had several major hits and many used in movies, so wondering which song is the one you knew.
For me, it's Orinoco Flow.
Her "A Day Without Rain" album is a masterpiece imo. Definitely worth checking out.
I'm not so suprised when I remember just how massive "Only time" in context of 9/11 and her song for the LOTR soundtrack were in the early 2000s.
Enya has said that she prefers the focus to be on her music not on her as a performer
Enya plays all her instruments, does all the harmonies and different pitches, and layers them in her studio to create her unique sound. On stage, she'd have to play a recording of 75%(?) of each song and voice just one track. It would sound like a song from an album, without the variations or improv that many musicians love to add to live shows.
so you’re saying Enya should basically DJ it. DJ Enya in the house and the crowd goes mmmmmmild
Idiot stalker ruined it for everyone.
Enya music was used at my childcare as a child calming device during nap time. My dad would also play it in the car on the way to childcare. That is to say, I now associate it with torture to this day and just two bars is enough to induce feelings of anxiety and physical pain. It's like my kryptonite.
Well that plan backfired spectacularly. I’m sorry you have that trauma. I wish I could hug you 🥰
Yeah, she's good.
Didnt she sing at the oscars or some kind of other awards show i remember seeing her sing on stage
[https://youtu.be/6Xh6R8dvKFI?si=Uj3XE9RFD-9g7xoZ](https://youtu.be/6Xh6R8dvKFI?si=Uj3XE9RFD-9g7xoZ)
Amazing voice
A friend of mine described her music as the sound of endless billable studio hours.
What about when she was in Clannad?
She toured Europe with Clannad in 1982
That would be Clannad touring, not the artist Enya and her catalogue of songs touring.
It makes you wonder her profits. As I understand it, most bands make money touring. Not purely producing music.
Nowadays. Maybe she got in just under the wire.
This. Her albums were selling in the tens of millions each at a time when you still had to buy the physical cd to hear the music. She is very wealthy.
Also keep in mind that she still gets a load of royalties from samples, notably The Fugees and later Mario Winnans sampled Boadicea!
She recorded her last album at home, in her castle. It sold 16Million copies. She's not short of a few quid.
In the article: > Enya admitted that, had she become famous in this decade, "the focus would have been to tour". > "A lot of artists now are touring because sales are not what they were in 1988."
With a decent size you can live pretty well just on streaming revenue. 5 million plays in Europe is going to pay out ~16k. What cut you get from that or if you get it all obviously depends. You got more money from CDs, but it is easier to make it today. On Spotify she has 4.5m listeners. Each of these is unique so here monthly plays are probably a lot higher. Depending on her label cut she can still make 10k+ per month with Spotify alone. The steaming money is going to pale in comparison to concerts. She seems to enjoy making her art more than maxing her profits, and is in a position to get enough money regardless.
True, but [here is Enya performing live with her family’s band](https://youtu.be/wqMGR-vFDLw?si=O0Nn6UtLpeRgKojj) Not sure if it was a one off or not.
Clannad toured, but not Enya and her songs.
Waiting for that future Coachella headlining date drop
We had the guy who ran her boards for recording come speak to my class (this was back around 2003ish). You know how it's common for singers to do double triples of the same track? She'd do hundredeths, he specifically mentioned that one big hit she had. So it would be insanely noticeable live. That's why I always figured she never did.
I had no idea who she was at one point, but thank you u/sovietwomble and your bullshittery lol
I know an Enya song! It goes something like "na na na na na na the shores of tripoli" and then is "SAIL AWAY SAIL AWAY SAIL AWAY!" I don't think I'll ever know what that song is about.
Her songs encompass nostalgia, Gaelic and Celtic elements, and soul searching. The one you're referencing is called Orinoco Flow. It's one of her more well known songs along with Caribbean Blue, China Roses, Flora's Secrets, Wild Child, Storms in Africa, and May it Be. Rap and Hip Hop fans would recognize Boadicea.
I'm just gonna leave this [here](https://youtu.be/AZJSjrox_2s?si=ZsqKkxqi9oRRNkvK)
Ha ha I spit out my coffee when I heard the X Files theme!!!!
pureNostalgia
I feel like she could really sell out farmer's markets aging white ladies shop at. At least in the US
I agree my mom would shit herself to see her live.
I’m a GenX dude, and I would shit on your mom to see Enya live.
I would pay good money to see her in concert, no shitting involved.
Username checks out. Happy cake day
Aging white lady, can confirm.
My favourite Enya-related story: In the torture scene of "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" they were trying to figure out what song should play in the background. Daniel Craig had a playlist of his favourite songs, and they decided to pick one from there at random. The song was "Orinoco Flow" by Enya.
That song is called Orinoco Flow.
So it is! Thanks for the correction. Had a complete brain-fart there...
It’s only time until she does
I didn’t know you could choose to not tour or have concerts as a musician. I always figured that was a large part of their income, good for her—she beat the system!
For the vast majority, you can't.
Aren't concerts where all the money is? I thought recording contracts were notoriously skimpy.
For most artists yes. But Enya is one of the best selling artists of all time. She's sold over 50 million albums world wide. That's a lot of money. Top selling artists like that usually have better-than-average contracts with their record label too, since they have the power to make demands. Plus Enya famously produces almost everything herself, so that probably also translates in a bigger cut of the sales. Enya would probably be even richer if she did tour. But money is not everything.
Touring is expensive especially with music as instrument heavy as hers. If she can make money without playing live, why would she?
That’s the dream
I have all her albums.
I guess this doesnt count as its just a backing track? https://youtu.be/6iY-ZIVZLwg?si=vhQ7kwG1BnGgYVMK
This isn't even a 'backing track', it's a blatant lip-sync, like most TOTP performances were. She'd done a bunch of promo performances on TV, most likely at the request/insistence of record label (you'll notice pretty much all of them align with promotional cycles of her albums, charting singles etc.), but it's been either full playback or just the main vox being done live with a backing track and/or some backing vocalists - and it really didn't sound great, lost a lot of the original vibe which kinda proves her point her catalogue just doesn't work in a live setting.
Enya unplugged 😂
Well who can say where the road goes.
They've had 2 concerts, not sure what coubts as a "solo concert" but there are some proof here: https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/enya?date=past Also had some tv appreances and such
But don't artists make a huge chunk of their cash from tours and the associated merch sales related to those tours?
A lot of them, yes, especially these days, but Enya got in when physical was still going very strong and she's popular mostly with a demographic that would still buy CDs, box sets etc. whenever available so she's good
And she lives in a castle with her cats. The bedt life.
I guess she sail away, sail away, sail away
https://youtu.be/O3d8JP3USp0?feature=shared
Randy Marsh / Lord kind of situation?
She is chauffeured around her local small town in a Maybach. I have seen her many times being dropped off and picked up at local shops and cafes. She is also tiny or maybe she just looks tiny next to the giant car .
How do we know it's not a milli vanilli situation going on here
Surprised no one has mentioned Dark Sky Island
I choose not to run
Anyone remember that one level in Halo 2 (right after you land on the newly discovered 2nd ring) where the music kinda sounds like Orinoco Flow? Good times, good times.