There are figures in the Irish music industry as unique and distinctive as Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, better known as simply "Enya."
Hailing from the Gaeltacht region in Donegal, Enya enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence, both in Ireland and internationally, during the 1980s before going on to become the biggest-selling Irish solo artist of all time.
Read more: WATCH: Enya reflects on her childhood in rare 1987 interview
After a nine-year stint with famed Irish music group Clannad, Enya departed for a solo career that would spawn four Grammy awards, an Oscar nomination, and tens of millions of album sales around the world.
Enya released her self-titled debut album "Enya" in 1987, which performed moderately well in the charts, cracking the top ten in Ireland but only peaking at 69 in the English charts.
It was Enya's next album that would drive her to international fame, however. In fact, it was one single on that album that would sure Enya would become a household name around the world.
Her sophomore album "Watermark", the first album she released for Warner Music, rocketed to number five in the English charts and broke the top 25 in the United States, exceeding all expectations.
The majority of the album's success can be attributed to "Orinoco Flow", by far the biggest selling single off the album and the song that Enya remains best known for to this day.
Those less familiar with Enya's work may recognize the song's chorus, which repeats "sail away, sail away, sail away" in an infuriatingly catchy manner.
That catchy refrain helped Orinoco Flow to the top of the UK singles charts for three successive weeks, not bad for a singer who supposedly didn't churn out singles.
After Watermark's release, Enya's career reached new heights and her follow-up album "Shepherd Moons" managed to outsell the hugely popular sophomore album while her fourth album, "The Memory of Trees", proved more popular still and broke the top-ten in the US Billboard Charts.
At the turn of the millennium, Enya found even further international recognition in tragic circumstances.
Her single "Only Time" surged up the Billboard charts after it was used in television coverage of the September 11 attacks in the United States. The song, initially released on the album "A Year Without Rain" a year before the attacks, became revered as a 9/11 anthem.
The song reached number two in the Billboard charts and "A Year Without Rain" sold a staggering 13 million copies around the world, according to Warner Music, making it by far her biggest-selling album.
Enya released a pop remix of "Only Time" which charted at the top of the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Charts. The Irish singer also donated proceeds from the remixed track to the International Association of Firefighters.
The same year, Enya recorded two songs for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", the first film in the massively popular trilogy.
"May it Be", one of the song's Enya recorded for the movie, garnered her an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, although she was beaten by Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters Inc."
Enya did perform the song at the Academy Awards ceremony though, describing the performance as a career highlight.
The Irish singer has released just three albums since that Academy Awards performance, "Amarantine," "And Winter Came," and "Dark Sky Island." All three albums have achieved widespread commercial success, helping to propel Enya to a reported 80 million album sales across her glittering career.
She is one of the staple names in the Irish music industry and her relatively closed persona has created something of an enigma around her.
Enya has never sought the public eye, preferring to shelter herself from the ever-present glare of the media, and safeguard her privacy.
Keeping her public appearances to the minimum, she has taken a humble approach to her huge fame, something that is often misconstrued as rudeness or arrogance.
The truth couldn't be more different.
She is simply a normal person who found fame and didn't allow it to go to her head.
Read more: Enya, one of the world's top-earning female artists, born on this day
What's your favorite Enya song? Let us know in the comments, below!
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