Family. You gotta love ’em (it’s contractual). After all, blood is thicker than water.

But blood is also ickier than water, so sometimes…sometimes you just have to sail away.

Eithne (phoneticized Enya) Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin was born into a musical family in Ireland in 1961. Her father was a bandleader, her mother an amateur musician, and her brothers, sister, and two uncles formed Celtic folk group Clannad in 1970. There was little doubt she would follow in the family footsteps.

As a young child, Enya began singing almost immediately and soon learned to play piano and saxophone. She intended to study music in college but left school when she was drafted, somewhat reluctantly, into Clannad in 1980. The band wanted a keyboard player to sound more contemporary with the times and Enya fit the bill, but she was little more than a session musician, brought in to do a job without much creative input.

In 1982, a conflict arose between some of the band members and their long-time managers Nicky and Roma Ryan. The Ryans were voted out and Enya decided to follow, going so far as to move into the couple’s house in Dublin. Relations between the siblings remained frosty for decades.

The Ryans fully believed in Enya and she fully believed in them, and together they built a home studio with every penny they had (and didn’t have) to start Enya’s solo career. She recorded demos and then received a couple of offers for soundtrack work. One of these was for a BBC series entitled The Celts. The music eventually came to the attention of Rob Dickins, the chairman of Warner Records UK, who listened to the soundtrack on repeat every night.

As soon as the chance presented itself, he signed Enya (much to the dismay of his Warner colleagues who didn’t hear the potential). Dickins later said, “Sometimes you sign acts to make money and sometimes you sign acts to make music.” Unknowingly, he would end up with both.

As part of the agreement for signing with Warner, Nicky Ryan extracted a promise from Dickins never to demand radio-friendly singles. Upon completing her first album for the label — titled Watermark — Enya sent the tape to Dickins, who gave it a listen and then called Ryan and jokingly asked, “Where’s the single?”

A week later, much to the astonishment of Dickins, Ryan called to say they had the single. Dickins received a tape with an unfinished song which repeated the phrase “sail away” over and over and mentioned Orinoco, the name of the studio where Enya had recorded the album. At first listen, Dickins didn’t even notice that he, too, was namechecked in the lyrics.

Released as a single in October of 1988, “Orinoco Flow” (produced by Nicky Ryan with lyrics by his wife, Roma, and music by Enya) breezed its way to number one in the UK (and many other countries). It only reached #24 in the US but had a greater cultural impact through its use in movies and television. Within five years, Enya had gone from penniless outcast to one of the biggest artists in the world. With help from her adopted family.

So turn it up, turn it up, from Bissau to Palau… with Enya.