Of all the music phenomenons over the past decades Enya is a remarkable one for a number of reasons that set her appeal aside of the norm.

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Born in Ireland, she started her music career in the early 80s and put out her first album during 1987, managing a highly solid career with a great average-per-album total. However, some aspects are weird and unusual: she is quite "faceless" compared to other female acts, she has generally taken long breaks between each effort and, most notably, she never went on tour.

The above are, in general, great handicaps. Not only becoming hugely popular, but also in maintaining a long lasting success that she, no matter what, achieved. In particular, the long breaks are hard to overcome when they occur so early on in an artist's career and more so when the public isn't quite as familiar with your face as they are with other pop/rock stars. Despite all of this Enya has been incredibly successful.

What has helped all this time, though? Arguably her music roots. For most people she is the absolute reference of new age, a genre of music that has become common in the last 4 decades with Enya as the greatest example. Anybody interested in new age will more than likely start with one of her LPs. Be it a studio album or a compilation. This is without any doubt a major benefit for her, which she capitalized on amazingly well.

With all of the above this article represents a great opportunity to delve into her catalogue, see how much she has sold and what various formats have brought to her. Where will she rank at the end? We shall find out.

Original Albums Sales

Enya (The Celts) (1987)

• America

  • US - 2,700,000
  • Canada - 290,000
  • Argentina - 80,000
  • Brazil - 325,000
  • Mexico - N/A

• Asia - 580,000

  • Japan - 225,000

• Oceania

  • Australia - 290,000
  • New Zealand - 40,000

• Europe - 1,610,000

  • UK - 500,000
  • France - N/A
  • Germany - 350,000
  • Italy - 130,000
  • Spain - 160,000
  • Sweden - 50,000
  • Netherlands - 75,000
  • Switzerland - N/A
  • Austria - 20,000
  • Finland - N/A

• World - 6,190,000

Watermark (1988)

Shepherd Moons (1991)

The Memory of Trees (1995)

A Day Without Rain (2000)

Amarantine (2005)

And Winter Came… (2008)

Dark Sky Island (2015)

Original Album Sales - Comments

1987 Enya (The Celts) - 6,190,000
1988 Watermark - 13,130,000
1991 Shepherd Moons - 13,270,000
1995 The Memory of Trees - 10,030,000
2000 A Day Without Rain - 14,430,000
2005 Amarantine - 4,760,000
2008 And Winter Came… - 2,710,000
2015 Dark Sky Island - 960,000

Over 65 million pure albums sold with only 8 proper studio releases is a fantastic amount, even more so when we consider all the elements mentioned in the intro. An average of 8 million per title speaks volumes for her appeal and is more than enough to explain her popularity.

Enya has 4 studio albums above the 10 million mark, with A Day Without Rain topping that pack at 14,4 million, closely followed by Sheperd Moons with 13,2 million and Watermark with 13,1 million, plus The Memory Of Trees at 10 million.

Her debut album also amassed a great total with almost 6,2 million, whilst some of her most recent efforts, reasonably big considering the market's size, although much less than in the past even adjusting for that factor, showed a smaller sales power. Yet Amarantine at 4,8 million along with And Winter Came... at 2,7 million registered excellent tallies.

Physical Singles Sales

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

As someone who started her career in the late 80s, it is no surprise what you see above: her physical singles sales are anything but impressive, with only a mild 5 million, which, given all circumstances, is still a decent total.

Orinoco Flow, from her Watermark LP, is her greatest seller in this format with 1,4 million, driven far more by strong European sales than anywhere else. Additionally, Only Time is a very predictable one: apart from generating massive albums sales to her name, this physical single is another million selling one after its usage for the media coverage of the September 11 attacks back in 2001.

Enya (The Celts) (1987) - 12,000 equivalent albums

The Celts - 30,000
I Want Tomorrow - 10,000

Watermark (1988) - 465,000 equivalent albums

Exile - 20,000
Orinoco Flow - 1,430,000
Evening Falls… - 70,000
Storms in Africa - 30,000

Shepherd Moons (1991) - 138,000 equivalent albums

Caribbean Blue - 320,000
How Can I Keep from Singing? - 60,000
Book of Days - 80,000

The Memory of Trees (1995) - 117,000 equivalent albums

Anywhere Is - 340,000
On My Way Home - 50,000

A Day Without Rain (2000) - 318,000 equivalent albums

Wild Child - 10,000
Only Time - 1,050,000

Amarantine (2005) - 23,000 equivalent albums

Amarantine - 70,000
It's in the Rain / Adeste, Fideles - 5,000

And Winter Came… (2008) - 2,000 equivalent albums

Trains and Winter Rains - 5,000

Orphan - 501,000 equivalent albums

Only If… - 160,000
May It Be - 220,000
Oíche Chiúin - Silent Night - 310,000
I Don't Wanna Know - 900,000
You Should Really Know - 80,000

Digital Singles Sales

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.

Just like she doesn't belong to the era of massive physical singles sales, one could argue that she doesn't completely fall into the most modern day and age of digital downloads which started to penetrate the audiences almost at the same time she began losing ground in the music business. She is at the end of the day a straightforward album selling act.

In spite of that some would possibly be surprised by her final digital downloads tally. In fact, Enya's cumulative digital sales are as high as 21 million overall, a quantity that compares very well with other acts such as Abba or Pink Floyd, both of which one would have expected to rank much higher.

And to prove her enduring appeal one more time this digital tally is boosted mostly by her oldest content, with Watermark's songs coming out on top, and not so much by her most recent studio albums.

Enya (The Celts) (1987) - 69,000 equivalent albums

The Celts - 100,000
Boadicea - 300,000
Remaining tracks - 60,000

Watermark (1988) - 225,000 equivalent albums

Watermark - 250,000
Orinoco Flow - 800,000
Storms in Africa - 300,000
Remaining tracks - 150,000

Shepherd Moons (1991) - 120,000 equivalent albums

Caribbean Blue - 600,000
Remaining tracks - 200,000

The Memory of Trees (1995) - 90,000 equivalent albums

Anywhere Is - 200,000
Remaining tracks - 400,000

A Day Without Rain (2000) - 330,000 equivalent albums

Wild Child - 200,000
Only Time - 1,500,000
Remaining tracks - 500,000

Amarantine (2005) - 210,000 equivalent albums

All tracks - 1,400,000

And Winter Came… (2008) - 203,000 equivalent albums

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - 250,000
Trains and Winter Rains - 200,000
Remaining tracks - 900,000

Dark Sky Island (2015) - 15,000 equivalent albums

All tracks - 100,000

Orphan - 180,000 equivalent albums

May It Be - 400,000
Oíche Chiúin - Silent Night - 200,000
I Don't Wanna Know - 400,000
Remaining tracks - 200,000

Streaming Sales

Streaming is made up of two families - audio and video. Our CSPC methodology now includes both to better reflect the real popularity of each track. The main source of data for each avenue is respectively Spotify and YouTube. As detailed in the Fixing Log article, Spotify represents 132 million of the 212 million users of streaming platforms, while YouTube is pretty much the only video platform generating some revenue for the industry. Below is the equivalence set on the aforementioned article:

Audio Stream - 1500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream - 11,750 views equal 1 album unit

Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = 212/132 * Spotify streams / 1500 + YouTube views / 11750

Streaming Part 1

We start this new section with an approach to the streaming world. Another segment that is worth quoting for her.

Her debut album gets as many 48,000 equivalent albums sales, but it is with her Watermark LP where we start to see more action with both the song of the same name, and especially with Orinoco Flow at 25,7 million Spotify streams and almost 40 million streams across that same platform respectively, this effort managed cumulative equivalent album sales of over 100,000 units.

Streaming Part 2

If Watermark opened doors in her career, she consolidated it all with the following longplays which are all properly reflected in streaming platforms. Shepherd Moons and The Memory Of Trees add an extra 90,000 and 66,000 equivalent albums sales respectively to her already massive numbers, with Caribbean Blue emerging once again as a standout track for her, almost topping the 40 million mark like Orinoco Flow and explaining much of Shepherd Moons' appeal, whereas Anywhere Is ranks as the strongest song from The Memory Of Trees with 16 million streams via Spotify and 13 million views on YouTube.

Streaming Part 3

As the numbers prove, Only Time didn't just have a great momentum when widely used to cover the September 11 attacks more than 16 years ago, but it has been able to sustain great popularity with a very strong 78 million streams on Spotify, and an even more massive 197 million views across YouTube. Apart from her signature song in the USA and other countries, tracks like A Day Without Rain, Wild Child, Flora's Secret and One By One top the 10 million mark on Spotify, albeit with mixed luck on YouTube. These five songs, coupled with the other album tracks, which all achieved at least 2 million streams, put A Day Without Rain at 187,000 equivalent albums sales when all is said and done, which surpasses Watermark.

Amarantine, with another four songs reaching at least 10 million streams on Spotify, and amongst them the title track ranking as the most sreamed, gives her an additional 99,000 equivalent album sales.

Streaming Part 4

And Winter Came... also looks solid with over 79,000 equivalent albums sales and with three tracks surpassing the 10 million mark, and a clear winner in the form of Trains And Winter Rains.

Dark Sky Island registered equivalent albums sales of 93,000 units but this is her only studio album so far falling into the streaming era, so these cumulative sales aren't particularly great when we come to think of it.

Streaming Part 5

We conclude this chapter with a relatively long list of Orphan tracks where the most remarkable fact is the final total: almost 116,000 equivalent albums sales, of which 41,000 relate to her May It Be track for The Lord Of The Rings film in 2001.

Full Length related record Sales

It sounds fairly logical to add together weighted sales of one era - studio album, physical singles, downloads, streams - to get the full picture of an album's popularity. For older releases though, they also generate sales of various live, music videos and compilation albums.

All those packaging-only records do not create value, they exploit the value originating from the parent studio album of each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, when such compilations are issued, this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP. Thus, to perfectly gauge the worth of these releases, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all the compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this method.

How to understand this table? If you check for example the Paint The Sky With Stars line, those figures mean it sold 13,650,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for 217,035 equivalent album sales from streams of all types.

Listed in cronological order, we have a mixed numbers of releases consisting of EPs, compilations, box-sets, music videos and even one soundtrack, with no live titles because -as mentioned before- she never went on tour.

Of all, her compilation Paint The Sky With Stars, which covered her first four studio albums, has become an evergreen seller with over 13 million copies worldwide. Watermark and Shepherd Moons took the biggest share, both with a combined 71% of its appeal, thanks to Orinoco Flow and Caribbean Blue. While her first LP and The Memory Of Trees take both the other 29% combined.

Only Time - The Collection and The Very Best Of offer a similar pattern albeit with her other studio albums represented, with A Day Without Rain getting the lead here instead of Watermark and Shepherd Moons, which also ranked very well anyway.

Only two music videos to her name, which comes as no real surprise, and not only because she never toured but, also because she hardly ever relied on her image. Moonshadows sold 100,000 copies, spread almost in equal parts across Watermark and Shepherd Moons, and her The Video Collection managed a far more modest 25,000 units with a similar tracklist as Only Time - The Collection.

Then we have the soundtrack Themes From Calmi Cuori Apassionati with 1,100,000 sold and a similar pattern to the ones above. Plus The Enya Box Set and two EPs that benefitted her first three LPs which complete this list.

Full Length related records Sales – Summary

Here is the most underestimated indicator of an album’s success – the amount of compilation sales of all kinds it generated. Due to the dependency of sales of the original studio albums on these releases, they are a key piece of the jigsaw.

BONUS: Compilation Albums Sales

Paint the Sky with Stars (1997)

BONUS: Total Album (all types) Sales per Country

• America

  • US - 33,130,000
  • Canada - 3,650,000
  • Argentina - 775,000
  • Brazil - 2,555,000
  • Mexico - 1,395,000

• Asia - 12,520,000

  • Japan - 7,265,000

• Oceania

  • Australia - 2,370,000
  • New Zealand - 385,000

• Europe - 24,130,000

  • UK - 6,670,000
  • France - 1,425,000
  • Germany - 4,580,000
  • Italy - 2,225,000
  • Spain - 2,310,000
  • Sweden - 960,000
  • Netherlands - 1,280,000
  • Switzerland - 560,000
  • Austria - 358,000
  • Finland - 142,000

• World - 82,500,000

Please note that some of the countries totals may be slightly incomplete when the figure is N/A for minor releases. Countries with too much missing information to be precise enough are listed as N/A.

Enya Career CSPC Results

So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each album by Enya achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!

[xyz-ips snippet="updatedCSPCalbums"]

So, apart from selling more than 65 million studio albums we have seen how Enya added further sales through other releases and formats. All the totals slightly increase, although the final order doesn't alter the initial picture very much.

If A Day Without Rain was the biggest in terms of pure albums, we can now find both Watermark and Shepherd Moons coming on top of that one largely thanks to their respective biggest tracks, Orinoco Flow and Caribbean Blue. This is how Watermark gets almost 20 million CSPC's sales and Shepherd Moons follows it just behind at 18,8 million CSPC's sales. A Day Without Rain gained far less additional sales but it also gets up to 16 million from its original 14,4 million "pure" albums sales.

The Memory Of Trees equally achieved major benefits from other releases jumping from 10 million to 12,7 million CSPC's sales. At the same time her self-titled debut album adds almost 2 million, and this enables it to pass from almost 6,2 million to 8,1 million CSPC's sales.

As usual in cases like this her most recent albums don't gain many extra sales, partially due to their lack of representation in compilations and box sets. At least these additional sales help Dark Sky Island reach 1 million CSPC's sales, up from its 960,000 pure albums sales.

Overall, Enya has accumulated 86,5 million equivalent albums sales, an enormous total, although it seems it will take quite some time before she hits 100 million. Whatever the case, a very big figure from all possible points of view.

The following sections list her most successful songs as well as her records and achievements.

As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!

Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Chartmasters.org.

BIGGEST TRACKS - Enya

The list of most successful songs is compiled in album equivalent sales generated by each of them. It includes the song's own physical singles sales with a 0,3 weighting, its download and streaming sales, and with appropriate weighting too, plus its share among sales of all albums on which it is featured.

1. 1991 - Caribbean Blue [Shepherd Moons] - 10,590,000
2. 1988 - Orinoco Flow [Watermark] - 9,340,000
3. 2000 - Only Time [A Day Without Rain] - 8,800,000
4. 1988 - Watermark [Watermark] - 5,420,000
5. 1995 - Anywhere Is [The Memory of Trees] - 4,240,000
6. 1987 - Boadicea [Enya (The Celts)] - 3,280,000
7. 1991 - Book of Days [Shepherd Moons] - 2,590,000
8. 2000 - Wild Child [A Day Without Rain] - 2,160,000
9. 1987 - The Celts [Enya (The Celts)] - 1,800,000
10. 1988 - Storms in Africa [Watermark] - 1,730,000
11. 1995 - Athair Ar Neamh [The Memory of Trees] - 1,630,000
12. 1995 - The Memory of Trees [The Memory of Trees] - 1,390,000
13. 1995 - China Roses [The Memory of Trees] - 1,310,000
14. 1995 - Pax Deorum [The Memory of Trees] - 1,260,000
15. 2000 - A Day Without Rain [A Day Without Rain] - 1,100,000

Records & Achievements

• At 86,457,000 equivalent album sales, Enya is the most successful New Age artist of all-time.
• Shepherd Moons spent 238 weeks inside the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.
• Watermark spent 141 weeks inside the Top 10 of the Billboard Top Catalog Album Chart.
• From 1989 to 1995, Watermark reached the Australian Top 25 Album Chart in 5 distinct years.
• At 86,457,000 equivalent album sales, Enya is the most successful non-North American female artist of all-time.
• Enya is one of the rare international artists with 3 million selling albums in Japan, one of which is past 2 million.
• Enya owns albums with sales over half a million units in various markets difficult to break like Brazil, Italy and Spain.
• At 12 years (1988-2000), Enya has the longest period among all female artists of consecutive major albums selling over 10 million units. Among all artists only Michael Jackson did better at 16 years (1979-1995).
• At 19,336,000 equivalent album sales, Watermark is among the three most successful albums from 1988.
• At 9,340,000 equivalent album sales, Orinoco Flow is among the three most successful songs from 1988.

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