Orinoco Flow

Historically, Ireland’s cultural and religious history had often seen women being shunted to the sidelines. There were songs written for women; and we had outstanding female vocalists, especially in the folk tradition, going back to the likes of the legendary Traveller singer Margaret Barry, with great song interpreters like Mary Black, Maura O’Connell, Dolores Keane, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Mary Coughlan leading the way in the late '70s and early '80s. But female songwriters seldom got a proper look in. That started to change significantly as the 1980s unfolded.

With music playing an increasingly important part in liberalising Ireland, women began to claim their rightful creative place. It was a vital shift which culminated in the rise of Sinéad O’Connor – and also of an artist who sang on Sinead’s debut album by the name of Eithne Ní Bhraonáin aka Enya. The classically-trained instrumentalist had teamed up with Roma Ryan as a writing partnership – and in ‘Orinoco Flow’ they created a song that would take Ireland by storm – and become one of the most successful popular hits of the era across the world. Enya’s place in the Irish song canon was forever secure...

Enya - Orinoco (Official HD Video)

The Story Behind The Song

Enya (or Eithne) Ní Bhraonáin grew up surrounded by music in Gweedore, an Irish language-speaking Gaeltacht area in Co. Donegal. In 1970, her sister Moya Ní Bhraonáin had formed Clannad with her brothers Ciarán and Pól, and uncles Noel and Padraig. Enya – who was the fifth child in the family – observed at close quarters what being in a modern folk group was all about.

After she finished school, Enya studied music for a year, before going on the road with Clannad. She was a sixth member of the group – in one form or another – for two years before leaving alongside the band’s long-standing sound sculptor and producer Nicky Ryan and his partner in work, and in life, Roma Ryan.

Together, they had a plan. Nicky built a studio at the back of the house he shared with Roma in suburban Artane, on the northside of Dublin. Enya moved in and the three friends set to work on crafting a distinctive and ambitious creative vision, built around Enya’s musicianship and voice, Nicky’s meticulous and highly original production skills and Roma’s emerging ability as a lyricist and story-teller.

It had a cottage industry feel to it and things seemed to be developing slowly. There were two difficult years where earnings were hard to come by, before the first proper fruits of the three-way collaboration were heard, with Enya writing the soundtrack for the film The Frog Prince (1984). While that wasn’t an entirely happy experience – later orchestrations were overlaid without the knowledge of the Enya team – it proved seminal. In 1985, she was asked to contribute music for a six-part BBC television series, The Celts. She submitted one track, and was then commissioned to compose all of the music, for what became a very successful, critically acclaimed production.

A Warners' publicity still of Enya, shot by David Scheinmann

Signed to Warners on the strength of The Celts, they were taken under the wing of UK CEO, Rob Dickins, who had fallen head-over-heels in love with Enya's music. Her debut album, Enya (1987), drew on that material, which delved into legend and mythology and patented the copiously multi-tracked production technique that would define the Enya sound. Remarkably, one of the tracks ‘Boadicea’ would go on to be sampled in not one but two No.1 singles – The Fugees’ ‘Ready or Not’ (1996) and Mario Winans’ ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ (2003) – among a host of other successful tracks. But that, as they say, came later.

The next record, liberated from the need to integrate with film, would be pivotal. With the enthusiastic backing of Rob Dickins, Enya, Nicky and Roma were given free rein to express themselves, and they did it with relish. The album was recorded first in their tiny, 16-track Aigle Studios in Artane, and then re-recorded, mixed and mastered in Orinoco Studios in London. That there was something special afoot was clear from the outset. In Ireland, Hot Press received a call directly from Nicky Ryan. “The record is ready,” Nicky offered. “Do you want to come and listen to it in the studio?” Similar calls were being made by Warners team in the UK to selected journalists and DJs. There was a feeling in the camp that the stars might just be perfectly aligned.

Opening with the gorgeously atmospheric title track, Watermark proved to be a beautiful and brilliant record. ‘Evening Falls’ and ‘Storms in Africa’ are towering highlights. But the immediate stand-out track was the last one recorded, written close to the deadline and included on the album only because the collective realised that they needed another track. In a parallel universe, ‘Orinoco Flow’ wasn’t needed. It was never written. And you aren't reading this now.

There is a marvellously buoyant mood on the track, reflective of the good place Enya, Roma and Nicky found themselves in. They felt keenly that they were about to set out on a musical journey which would take them around the world and back, and that had the potential to change their lives. Little did they know just how much. There was a ring of confidence, nonetheless, about the sailing metaphor, and the acknowledgement that, from here on, as CEO of the Warners label, Rob Dickins was firmly – as the lyrics of the song say – “at the wheel.” As ever, the artist’s chances of success were dependent on the way the record company performed. In that regard, they were about to be swept right off their feet.

King Princess: sang the praises of 'Orinoco Flow' in Hot Press

The idea for the song had its origin in the name of the recording location, Orinoco Studios. Roma Ryan was naturally playful – and curious. It didn’t take long for her to make the link to the Orinoco River, which flows through Venezuela and Colombia and is the fourth largest river in the world. The ‘Orinoco Flow’ was a reference both to the power of the river, and to the creative process – and how it had all come together in spectacular style in the studio.

“From the North to the South, Ebudæ into Khartoum,” Enya sings, in a second verse that, with its references to poetically named places in the Hebrides, Sudan, Bolivia and the Philippines, will have most people reaching for their pocket Atlases. “From the deep Sea of Clouds to the island of the moon/ Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been/ Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never seen/ We can sail, we can sail with the Orinoco Flow/ We can sail, we can sail / Sail away, sail away, sail away…” And they did.

The album, Watermark, was released on September 19, 1988. The single, ‘Orinoco Flow’, followed on 15 October, 1988 – and the excitement was immediately palpable. The team at Warners had done their job. The radio plays flowed. The requests flooded in. MTV got behind the video. The track had a gorgeous hook in the “Sail away” refrain, but it also tapped into something profound. Deep in our hearts, most of us yearn for the opportunity to do just that: to sail away and leave the all too familiar world of routine, pain and strife behind; all the better to be lifted up in the process by a gushing river, powering us dizzily to destinations unknown. People wanted to hear the song again. And again. “There is a tide in the affairs of man,” William Shakespeare had Brutus say to Cassius in his Julius Caesar, “Which taken at the flood/ Leads on to fortune.” This was one of those moments.

‘Orinoco Flow’ hit the charts in the UK and climbed swiftly to No.1, where it stayed for three weeks. Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium all fell in love with it too, also elevating it to No.1 . Germany, Sweden, Poland and New Zealand were just one place behind. It became a global smash hit, reaching No.1 in Europe, propelling Watermark to No.5 in the album charts. That proved to be just the start of the start, of it.

The chart positions achieved by Watermark across the world were enviable: No.1 in Switzerland and New Zealand, No.5 in Spain, Sweden and the UK, and No.25 in the biggest music market in the world, the USA. A star was born. But something else had happened too. Led by ‘Orinoco Flow’ and the ebbs and flows of its minutely specced sonic landscape, Enya’s music had voyaged as far into people’s hearts as the imaginary ship travelled on the global journey described with such an appetite for adventure in ‘Orinoco Flow’ itself.

The magical alchemy that can only happen with a song had begun to take permanent shape: unbeknownst to ourselves, we start to sing it. And the companion songs on Watermark also started to weave their spell. The record kept selling. One million. Two million. Three million. Sales climbed. And climbed. Platinum in Spain. Double platinum. Four times platinum in the USA. Five times elsewhere. 11 million copies sold and rising.

‘Orinoco Flow’ has since been featured in dozens of movies and TV series, including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Shrek Forever After, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Moone Boy, Cougar Town, Eighth Grade, Black Mirror, Living With Yourself and lots more besides. It was featured in a major Dulux paint advertising campaign. It has inspired a whole new generation of singers, including Caroline Polachek, Ireland's Lyra, Norway's Aurora and the brilliant young LGBTQ+ icon, King Princess.

"That song's really hot," Princess said of 'Orinoco Flow', in an interview with Hot Press. "They're all hot, but if you think about it, the 'Sail Away' video is so next level. Like the photo-composite element. She's incredible. I'm so intrigued by her life story. I'm intrigued by the fact that she has played one solo show - ever. Also, she lives in a castle – I wanna live in a castle! Then the stuff she did for The Lord Of The Rings. That's Enya's lane.”

'Orinoco Flow' has become part of the popular cultural lexicon, sailing on, reaching fresh shores and being heard by new people, and sampled by established and rising artists alike, its place in music history secure.

“From Bali to Cali, far beneath the Coral Sea,” the opening verse ends, before – confirming that things often work best in threes – the injunction lands: “Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up.” All over the world, the people answered in the affirmative. As a result, we are still humming the melody of ‘Orinoco Flow’ and singing with all the gusto we can muster: “Sail away, sail away, sail away”...

Enya, photographed for the cover of Hot Press in 2015, by Kathrin Baumbach