In a world where some stars can’t order an oat flat white without sharing it on Instagram, Enya — who turned 64 on May 17 — is an anomaly. The singer, best known for ubiquitous hits from the 80s and 90s like “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” and “Only Time,” has sold over 80 million albums worldwide, making her the most successful Irish solo artist of all time and she’s cited as an influence by everyone from Taylor Swift to Moby to, uh, Spencer Pratt.
In January 2025, reality star Pratt went TikTok viral with videos of himself eating burritos to one of her songs, “Echoes in Rain.” He even said he wanted to travel to Ireland to ask the singer for permission to remix her work with music by his wife, Heidi Montag — but fans wisely told him to stay well away! And in 2023, “Enyacore” was widely celebrated online, with fans creating fantasy videos set to her music, bringing a new generation of listeners her way.
Yet somehow, the star has managed to avoid everything that normally comes with fame.
Born Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin in County Donegal, Ireland, Enya has never been in a Twitter feud, appeared on a reality show or had a wardrobe malfunction at an awards ceremony. In fact, her red carpet appearances and press interviews have been few and far-between — which is why she’s often described as reclusive. However, further investigation reveals that she’s simply living the introvert’s dream, leading a quiet life outside Dublin in the castle she bought in 1997 for 3.8 million Euros (just over $4.1 million) with only her cats for company.
The singer branched out from her family band Clannad in the 1980s with her unique, ethereal sound: part choral, part New Age, part modern synth. It means she’s soundtracked numerous vacation shows, dinner parties and small town yoga classes, for the best part of four decades. One of her best-known and most soothing songs, “Only Time,” released in 2000, became synonymous with mournful TV coverage of 9/11.
Over the years, and often with long hiatuses, she’s released eight studio albums and won four Grammys, as well as an Oscar nomination in 2002 for her work on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, but she has never been on tour or even performed a solo concert. Instead, she’s created her own private haven from all the madness that success can bring. Her home — yes, the castle — has high walls and sweeping views.
“It’s very castle on the exterior,” she told The Guardian in 2000, in a rare interview. “But it’s very much a home inside. It’s actually a very small castle and I fell in love with it.” She added: “In the morning I open the shutters – you’ll note in the castle it’s shutters, not curtains – and I look out onto the Irish sea. It’s beautiful and very inspirational.”
Bono — whose band, U2, is the only Irish music export more successful than she is — is a neighbor, but they don’t hang out, although do occasionally cross paths in some of Dublin’s fancier restaurants. In fact, Enya’s creative circle is small: she has worked with producer Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan since she started out, and they live close by.
Reclusive, though? Not exactly. She enjoys life’s luxuries; she’s just selective about who she shares them with. She has never married or had children, but has been in relationships. They’ve just been kept very, very private.
“That I’m not married and don’t have children has been my choice,” she said in the same Guardian interview. “I don’t feel I’ve missed out in any way. At school other girls talked about getting married, but it was never on my list of things to do. I was looking at something else. Actually what I went through wasn’t as traumatic as I’m making out. I didn’t think that much about it. I had to stop putting the pressure on myself, because of relationships coming and going, but if relationships aren’t working that means they’re not right.”
The star knows that some fans and critics find her quiet life perplexing. “My private lifestyle bothers a lot of people,” she added. “It’s not a hanging offence not wanting to go to nightclubs. What happened to choice? My choice is that after a certain amount of promotion, I feel it gets very false and then I’m not interested. When the album has been out for, say, 10 months, people will start focusing on me and I really don’t want that. I love the music to be known, but I’m not after fame for myself.”
Enya spoke more about her love of privacy in an interview with The Irish Times in 2015. “It was important to me to retain privacy, because I was kind of worried that fame might interfere with my writing, with my music; that it might have changed what I was working on,” she said. “I was guarding everything really carefully and closely.”
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The same year, she told The Independent: “I have never tried to create an enigma. I have just always been a very independent person.”
In fact, she’s so focused on her music, that she wonders if it’s one of the reasons she’s never been married. “There have been… relationships,” she said in the same interview. “It’s quite hard to have someone accept that – well, not that they are second to the music, but that I do need a certain amount of space for it. And even though the person will understand that at the beginning, there is something like jealousy towards the music after a while. It’s difficult.”
While most fans respect the star’s firm boundaries, over the years a few have violated her privacy in terrifying style. In 2005 one fan broke into her castle and tied up a maid while searching for the star and stealing personal items, but no money or valuables. Enya herself managed to hide in a panic room, and a man was arrested. Even further back, in 1996, an Italian fan who had been trailing her for over a year stabbed himself at her parents’ pub when he was asked to leave.
“It’s been traumatic,” she said in her 2015 interview with The Independent. “I get letters from people saying they are coming to meet me. But, you know, I sympathize with these people because I sense that they are very disturbed. They are leaning towards the music, or to me, for other reasons. They need help.”
Thankfully, most fans leave Enya well alone, happy that she’s happy. But what does she do while she’s holed up in that castle? “I do Pilates,” she told The Independent. “Not classes; I have an instructor that comes to me. I do it in the privacy of my own home.”
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She also told The Believer magazine in 2017 that she watches a lot of TV and movies, listing Alfred Hitchhock’s Rebecca as her favorite classic film. “There’s a lot of stuff on TV that I’m not really interested in, like soaps and stuff like that,” she said, before revealing that she loves Breaking Bad. “Huge fan,” she said. “It’s wonderful. Myself, Nicky, and Roma are huge fans of Breaking Bad. We just didn’t miss an episode. I like Mad Men as well.”
She also revealed that, contrary to her reclusive image, she does go out — and sometimes even gets recognized. “Sometimes you think you’re in an environment where nobody will know you,” she said in the same interview. “In Australia and walking into a shop with my sister — and the next thing, what I get, this is what I get: ‘You know who you look like?’ and I stand there, and because I don’t say anything they go, ‘Is it you?’ And then I feel it’s not fair to say no, so then I will — my smile kind of gives it away.”
She added: “My fans really understand me and give me space. They’ll ask for an autograph and they’ll just leave. They are very understanding to the way that I like to live, and to the fact that I’ve always pushed the music, rather than myself, forward. I always say that fame and success are two different things.”
It’s been a while since Enya released anything brand new: her last album, Dark Sky Island, came out in 2015. In 2023, a new version of “Orinoco Flow” dropped, alongside a new vinyl version of her iconic 1988 album, Watermark, and her official website was given a lick of paint at the time, but has been dormant since. In February 2025, she won an RTE Award for Classic Irish Album, but didn’t attend the ceremony in person.
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Instead, she issued a statement: “I am very very honoured tonight. When Watermark came out, I was just so proud to be able to make music. My love of music has always been a driving force to me and any success always feels like a great bonus, as I’ve been determined to create music which is true to myself from a very young age. Watermark really kickstarted my career and has always remained very special to me.”
Meanwhile, neighbors in the Irish village of Dalkey, close to where she lives, say she remains elusive. In a Sunday Times feature in April 2025 entitled “In search of Enya, the star who sailed away from the spotlight”, some said they had seen her being chauffeur-driven in a brown Mercedes limo from time to time. And a local restaurant owner, Jérôme Fernandes, said she had last dined at his place, The Guinea Pig, before the pandemic. “Even though she is rarely seen these days, Enya is still very much respected in Dalkey as she’s brought so much positivity to the area,” he said. “When she was here before Covid it was clear that she wasn’t looking for attention and didn’t stand out compared to anyone else.”
But, as long as Spencer Pratt’s making TikToks, TV shows with boats on them need soundtracks and yoga teachers want to create the perfect relaxing but uplifting environment, Enya’s distinctive, timeless music will continue to get attention — and keep her and her beloved cats warm, cozy and content in their castle.
