Whether one is a fan of Enya’s unique musical style or not, it is hard to listen to her music without feeling transported to a portrait or landscape of the imagination. Each piece has an atmospheric quality that can draw out big emotion, from a great sense of peace, to sorrow, to elation, to inspiration.
When Enya first appeared on the music scene, in the late 1980s, her style and production was modern and avant garde, yet possessed an ancient undertone with its classical and Celtic influences. It is surprising how many modern artists she has inspired, and across such a wide range of genres, from R&B, to indie artists, to death metal. Many now have admitted their admiration despite the criticisms and stereotypes Enya’s music has endured. Over time, however, that stigma has softened and turned into a reverence and acknowledgement of Enya’s brilliance.
On a personal note, Enya has been very private and guarded, not divulging details of relationships or romance, except for one. In an interview with the BBC, Enya confessed that her first love was the piano. And this love is the foundation of her composition, “Portrait.” It was first released as a short one minute and a half piece on her album ‘Enya” but was later doubled in length and re-recorded for ‘The Celts’ album and re-titled “Portrait (Out of the Blue).”
In her 1987 BBC interview, Enya explained, “I was asked to write a piece of music for a pre-Raphaelite sketch and it’s called ‘The Portrait’. And I thought it would be nice, seeing as my first love is for piano, to write it on piano and leave out as much synthesizer as possible. And it’s a very simple piece. It ended up a very simple piece for piano.”
And herein lies the magic of Enya. She is able to write a simple piece on piano yet deliver a punch to the musical gut and leave us feeling as if we are floating on clouds. Enya may have had pre-Raphaelite art in mind as she wrote this melody but it is hard to pin her music to a specific period in time as it possesses an otherworldly, timeless aura.