It Ain't Enya

There are many songs out there claiming to be Enya... but aren't. Maybe it's a synth lover who thinks the only way they'll get exposure is to claim to be someone famous. Maybe it's a 12-year-old screwing around on mommy's computer and doesn't know the name of the song they just downloaded. Or maybe it's some idiot college kid who hears something and says "oo, oo, I know, that's New Age, so it's gotta be that chick, wutzername, Enya!"

Who knows how it really starts, but at some point someone puts the wrong artist on there. Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond are often mixed too, so it's not just New Age artists. Suddenly, Enya fans see a song they've never heard before, pay their 10 cents or whatever, only to find... it ain't Enya.

My friends know I love Celtic music, so I often get random "have you ever heard of [insert artist]?" which, of course, I've probably never heard of them, and it sends me rummaging through Amazon or Download.com for samples of this newly discovered person. I like that. I discovered Anahata that way.

Other times, I get "I have a song I bet you don't have" and low and behold, I don't have it. Nor did the artist ever make it! Many do that claiming an Enya song I don't own. (I have all of her albums, but she releases some songs only on singles. I don't have all those, but I WANT THEM!) Their claim often turns out to be Loreena McKennitt or Lisa Gerrard or Enya's older siblings in Clannad, all of whom I love.

A year ago when Enya's new album Amarantine came out, someone asked if I had the "Amarantine Promo." I was like, "Sure, you mean Comb of the Winds..." No, no, not the single, I mean the Promo. Like Monsoon Chariot. Monsoon what? Never heard of it. Where can I buy it? Oh, it's not in stores, it's bootlegged, internet only, mysterious 13th track, only in Russia or something.

So I risk the wrath of the RIAA and (hush now) I downloaded these "Enya promos." Sure enough, I've never heard of them. One is titled Amarantine, but it's a fast, heavily percussive song that builds intensity upon one word, "Angelica," even more intense than Enya's other driving song, The River Sings, certainly nothing like the happy, sleepy, optimist "Amarantine, Amarantine" of the album song. In fact, some of these aren't Enya-ish at all. Some plain out aren't Enya. One's a man! I did not download them all, only a few, but I had a problem. Here were some apocryphal songs, maybe-but-most-likely-not by Enya, and I had no clue who really did them.

And I was growing to really like them!

Now, when it comes to my music, I'm a perfectionist. I want all the info inputted properly. If it's off my own collections, no problem, but it's harder if it's from a friend who made a CD of songs they thought I'd like (which is not pirating; it's the same thing we did back in the '80s with tapes and it was legal!) That music doesn't always have the info to transfer over. I'll spend hours searching for the right album, what year, what track number, who wrote the song, a picture of the front of the album. Yes, I obsess a little!

So now I have songs I like, don't want to get rid of them, and they're not the right artist, possibly not even the right name of the song. So off I go, digging into the arcana of Enya forums, hunting for "songs not by Enya." There are plenty of gripers ranting about the difference between Loreena, Lisa, Moire, and Enya, complaining about a new generation of Celtic and New Age musicians masking their songs as Enya, but not much for who actually did these songs. Mostly, they have guesses. It might be him, it's possibly her, admitting many of these are not unknown artists trying to break out, but famous artists people just ignorantly mistook for being Enya. While I'm racking up demerits from the RIAA, I checked these possible songs against the promo songs. Nothing like it at all!

This is a list of the false-Enya songs on the "Amaratine Promo," who did them, and I added links so you can check out the album on Amazon. Support the artists! Or at least spread the word about them.

[UPDATE - Feb. 2014]

I've updated the original list, thanks to a bunch of people jumping in and filling in the blanks. You guys are awesome!

01 Amarantine = Angelica, by Seay, 1 Voice (2005)
02 Remember Now, by 2002, The Emerald Way (2006)
03 World of Wonders, by F.R.E.U.D., Time Passangers (1998)
04 Fading Hues = Longing for Ashira, by Enam, M'anchelii (2001)
05 Caeli et Terra = Sanctus, by Anael, Unconditional (1998)
06 Dragonfly = In the Hollows of Trees, by Gary Stadler & Singh Kaur, Fairy NightSongs
07 Mor Rioghain = Siren Song, by Seay, 1 Voice (2005)
08 Along Meadow Streams = Marcomé, by Librarsi, Seven Seas (1996)
09 Arcadia, by Miriam Stockley, Miriam (1999)
10 Cagaran Gaolach = Musa-Mare Lullaby, by Wendy Stark, Child of Transference (1999)
11 In the Arms of Eternity = In The Arms Of Morpheus, by Emoke, Swimming in Dark Water (2003)
12 Iapetus = Mystery, by Lorellei, Spiritus - Breath of Life (1996)
13 Monsoon Chariot = Still, by Seay, 1 Voice (2005)

Okay, so that's the list, a bit more detailed than anything in the Enya forums, if I may brag. Thanks for all the input!

If you downloaded these songs, do everyone a favor and rename them. Please give credit where it's due. And if you realize, "hey, I have that song and I LIKE IT," please check out the artist who really did it. You just might want to buy the album.