вЂPeople inevitably want to portray you in a certain way, so I started to control it rather than let them do what they wanted to do. You get the impression that Enya is formidable in one of those giant record company boardrooms with a glass table, fighting off suggestions of naked photo shoots and remixes by Calvin Harris. I mean, you are supposed to be selling my music, arenвЂ™t you? So how is changing my image going to benefit the music? They didnвЂ™t have an answer to that.вЂ™ I probably could have been a more famous person, but then I thought, how is that going to benefit the music?вЂ™ And the record company couldnвЂ™t answer that. But even so, early on, the record company wanted me to be more rockвЂ™nвЂ™roll,вЂ™ she says with a shrug. вЂњHang on, IвЂ™ve got a CD at home with her on it!вЂќвЂД®nya has a theory about why: вЂ вЂњWatermarkвЂќ sold around the world before anyone knew who I was, so I had a career that wasnвЂ™t dependent on what I looked like. People might walk past me in the street and do a double-take. вЂI would consider myself more successful than famous. Almost as big as U2, but people still donвЂ™t really know what you look like. вЂWhen I sing it first time, I try to make it sound like a song, but without the wordsвЂ¦вЂ™ They come later, as weвЂ™ll see. вЂLeiiiвЂ¦ dad aвЂ¦ daiii a daiiiii a daaaa.вЂ™ EnyaвЂ™s voice grows in strength and then trails off into a beautiful melody, even fading on cue, just like a CD. вЂLike da? ItвЂ™s very difficult to do it on the spot.вЂ™ IвЂ™m not one of these people inspired suddenly by a beautiful landscape or a story or an emotional momentвЂ¦ I like to curate different ideas and put them all in one song, and see the journey of what it will become.вЂ™ Indeed it does, as I discover while attempting to find out what inspires her songs.Дo youвЂ¦ do youвЂ¦? вЂI like to sit with the blank canvas. вЂWhen people ask me a question, I go very quiet,вЂ™ she says, when asked why she doesnвЂ™t do this sort of thing too often. The only sound is the chink of our cups and the murmur of a corporate party checking in next door for a weekend of golf.Д®nya, 47, is invariably described as birdlike, or school-marm-ish, but the truth is that she is shockingly, outrageously normal, only with a small invisible protective bubble around her that says donвЂ™t pry too hard, or else. WeвЂ™re sitting in a wood-panelled room with servantsвЂ™ bells around the walls. For today, I am told, she has rented a nearby castle, but this is subsequently downgraded to a golfing hotel, which used to be merely a smallish castle, if not a bog-standard country estate. She lives in a castle in Killiney, south of Dublin, bought for ?2.5million in 1997 and named Manderley after the house in her favourite book, Daphne du MaurierвЂ™s Rebecca. She is critic-proof, as are ABBA, Cliff Richard or U2, the difference being that in 20 years, Enya has never played a single note live. Yet who cares what critics think? Certainly not Enya. Uplifting nonsense concealing the most cynically calculated mood music in the history of (Middle) Earth. Elevator New Age balm to light a candle to and soothe the furrowed brow. In spite of вЂ“ or maybe because of вЂ“ her ever-growing success, critics continue to decry her work as tosh: soothing Body Shop Muzak. In EnyaвЂ™s case she has appeared in public a mere handful of times, yet her present worth is estimated at between ?60million and ?100million. It is defined as the inexplicable growth in sales of an artist in inverse relation to how much publicity they have. Music industry insiders even have a term for her inexorable rise: Enyanomics. After 9/11, her sales went through the roof, after sombre radio play and wall-to-wall CNN usage. There are people who genuinely believe her records have cured them of cancer (as one fan puts it, hers is вЂthe chemo music of choiceвЂ™ for many sufferers), helped them to stop smoking, or at the very least relieved the boredom of a traffic jam.

There have been just seven albums since вЂWatermarkвЂ™ in 1989, and yet EnyaвЂ™s fan base is getting bigger, growing like some unfathomable geothermal confection of dry ice and Celtic gobbledegook that scientists struggle to explain. This is because Enya is a product, a sound, without limit. Unlike U2, however, or just about any other artist, EnyaвЂ™s sales have grown вЂ“ not diminished вЂ“ with the passing of each year and each new album. ItвЂ™s the kind of fierce, loyal devotion from fans that has helped Enya sell more than 70million albums worldwide, making her second only to U2 as IrelandвЂ™s biggest-selling artist of all time. On leaving Dublin Airport to meet Enya, I am somewhat compromised by a message on my mobile from my mother telling me she will kill me if IвЂ™m nasty to her. The story of Enya has all the makings of an ancient Irish legend, involving heroes and villains, sorcery, and at its heart a mystery: how does this publicity-shy singer sell millions of records while hardly ever leaving her castle? By Jacques Peretti

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