Celebrating 20 Years of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize

RTÉ Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA

Classic Irish Album

And the winning album is…

Watermark
by
Enya

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album, in association with IMRO & IRMA, has just been announced on RTÉ Gold by Paul Moriarity. The winning album is: Watermark by Enya.

“I am delighted to win the RTÉ Choice Music Classic Album Prize. Watermark has a special place in my heart – it was my second album and really launched my career internationally. It is wonderful that people are still discovering it today and it’s an honour to be chosen for this prize recognising Irish music” – Enya, 2025

The panel chose Watermark by Enya as their Classic Irish Album for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize and explain further – “Following a lengthy deliberation and some very stiff competition, we deemed Watermark the most worthy recipient for this year’s Classic Irish Album award. Not only is Enya’s second record a remarkable piece of work for its time, but it has endured across the 37 years since its release and continues to inspire and influence generations of musicians to this day. Alongside her producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, Enya essentially pioneered a new genre of music with Watermark, blending her traditional Irish background with elements of ambient, world, choral and pop music and her innovative layered vocal technique that can be heard on songs like Storms in Africa, Cursum Perficio and of course, the iconic Orinoco Flow. It was commercially successful on a global scale, yet the panel agreed that Enya is often underestimated or perhaps misunderstood by many. It felt like an apt opportunity to acknowledge her visionary work as both a vocalist and a musician – and Watermark, in all its strange, evocative beauty, comprehensively fulfils the criteria for a ‘classic album’.”

The judges for the prize are Lauren Murphy, Arts and Culture Journalist; John Connolly, Author and presenter of From ABC to XTC on RTE Gold; Louise Duffy, Music Presenter, RTE Radio 1 and Harry Martin, Director Domino Records – with Paul Russell (Radio producer, formerly RTÉ 2FM) as the chairperson. The album will be played in full tonight on RTÉ Gold after 6pm.

Watermark was released in 1988 on Warner Music UK (Geffen worldwide). Signed by Rob Dickins, who was head of the label at the time, 26-year-old Enya was given full creative control and artistic freedom. The writing and recording of the album continued her long-term collaboration with manager, arranger and producer Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan. Initially recorded in Dublin it was re-recorded digitally in Orinoco Studios in London. “Orinoco Flow”, the album’s global hit, was the final song written for the album. Selling an estimated 10 million albums, Watermark achieved multi-Platinum-selling status in many countries and is credited with propelling Enya to global fame and acclaim.

“A rich mood piece of broad proportions” and “a glorious aural mosaic” – Rolling Stone

Album playlist  – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMEYX7LPtqE

The inaugural winning Classic Irish Album was I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by the late great Sinéad O’ Connor, followed last year by U2’s Achtung Baby.

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Live Event, Vicar St Thursday 6th March (Sold-Out)

The winning Irish Album of the Year 2024 will be announced at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize live event in Vicar St Thursday 6th March, and, will be broadcast on RTÉ 2FM in a special four-hour extended show with Beta Da Silva from 7-11pm. Eight of the ten nominated artists will perform on the night. A special TV show will be broadcast on 13th March at 10.35pm on RTÉ2.

The Classic Irish Album prize will be presented along with Irish Artist of the Year and Irish Breakthrough Artist that night.

The Irish Song of the Year 2024 will be announced by Tracy Clifford on her 2FM show on the day of the live event and presented to the winner in Vicar St that night. Tracy will also host the live event.

RTÉ Choice Music Prize Conversations will take place on the day, Thursday 6th March, with four music industry panels running from 12.00-16.30. Details to follow next week.

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The 20th annual RTÉ Choice Music Prize will once again celebrate the best in Irish recorded music.   The Prize has become one of the music-industry highlights of the year since its inception in 2005. The Irish Album of the Year award is chosen from a shortlist of ten albums by a panel of eleven Irish music media professionals and industry experts. The list of judges is available via http://www.choicemusicprize.ie. 

The winning Album of the Year act will receive €10,000, a prize fund which has been provided by The Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO) and The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). All shortlisted acts will receive a specially commissioned award.

RAAP, Culture Ireland, FMC, Minding Creative Minds, Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet and Coimisiún na Meán are also official project partners of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Choice Music Prize: Liza Geddes, Recode Publicity | lizageddes@gmail.com 
RTÉ:  Neil O’Gorman | neil.ogorman@rte.ie

Notes to Editor:

– Enya is Ireland’s best-selling solo Irish Artist with over 80 million physical album sales.
– Watermark was released on 19 September 1988.
– Enya recorded Watermark with her long-time collaborators: manager, producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan.
– Watermark was an unexpected commercial success, propelling Enya to worldwide fame.
– Worldwide chart positions: Number 5 on the UK Albums Chart | Number 25 on the Billboard 200 in the United States,
– Watermark was a quadruple Platinum-selling album in the United Kingdom and the United States.
– Debut single, Orinoco Flow, was a simultaneous No 1 hit in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
– Watermark has sold in excess of 8.5 million physical copies worldwide and clocked up over 560 million Spotify streams.

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize is organised by co-founder David Reid.  Editor of RTÉ Brainstorm & co-founder of the prize, Jim Carroll, is the chairman of the judging panel for Irish Album of the Year. It is unique in that the judging of the Irish Album of the Year focuses simply and solely on the music (as opposed to sales or airplay). A different group of judges has been put in place for each of the three categories. The full list of all the judges will be on the RTÉ Choice Music Prize website starting 8th January, and through the week as each shortlist is announced, along with some further details. This is the twentieth year of the prize. Past winners can be found via http://www.choicemusicprize.ie/past-prizes/

Stay up-to-date with the latest RTÉ Choice Music Prize news by following @choiceprize, @rte2fm, @rte and @rte2 on Twitter and Facebook and @explorerte and @rte2fm on Instagram using #rtechoiceprize.

Further information can be found at:
http://www.choicemusicprize.ie
http://2fm.rte.ie/
http://www.rte.ie/
http://twitter.com/choiceprize