"May It Be" is a song by Irish recording artist

Enya Enya Patricia Brennan (; ga, Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin; born 17 May 1961), known professionally by the mononym Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician known for modern Celtic music. She is the best-selling Irish solo arti ...

. It was composed by Enya and

Roma Ryan Roma Shane Ryan (born 20 January 1954 in Belfast) is an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist, currently living in Killiney, Ireland, with her husband Nicky Ryan. Ryan is the primary lyricist for the singer Enya, who has stated that the importance of ...

for

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's 2001 film '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring''. The song entered the

German Singles Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...

at number one in 2002 and was performed by Enya at the

74th Academy Awards The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly ...

. "May It Be" was acclaimed by music critics and received nominations for the

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...

, the

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song is a Golden Globe Award that was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The award is presented to the songwriters of a ...

, and the

Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Recipients * Each year is linked ...

Composition

Director

approached Enya (under the suggestion of Howard Shore), asking if she would be interested in writing a song for ''The Lord of the Rings''.Enya Fan Studio. Enya Fan Studio, 2005. Web. 22 October 2010. Thrilled at the prospect, Enya headed to New Zealand to see the preliminary edits of the film. Enya worked on the song with

Nicky Ryan Nicholas Dominick Ryan (born 14 July 1946) is an Irish music producer, recording engineer, and manager. He is best known as the longtime business and recording partner for the singer, songwriter and musician Enya alongside his wife, poet and lyri ...

, her producer, and

, her lyricist. Nicky produced Enya's vocals and arranged the music while Roma wrote the lyrics. They recorded the song through Enya's contract with Warner Music in the Ryans' Dublin studio, Aigle Studio. The vocals were recorded in "Aigle Studios", Enya's Studio near Dublin and the orchestration was recorded in London, directed by Howard Shore and performed by the

London Voices London Voices is a London-based choral ensemble founded by Terry Edwards (1939-2022) in 1973. In its early years, it also incorporated the London Opera Chorus and London Sinfonietta Voices and Chorus. In 2004, Ben Parry, became co-director of th ...

and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Compositionally, the piece is simple, featuring a backdrop of choir and strings. As Doug Adams commented, Enya's contributions "coexist so neatly," with Shore's score, that "neither Enya song is relegated to its own track."

Lyrics

The lyrics of this theme song include English words, as well as words in the fictional Elvish language, Quenya, created by J.R.R. Tolkien. While Enya wrote music, Roma Ryan studied the languages and wrote the lyrics in English and Quenya. There are two lines with phrases written in Quenya. The first, ''Mornië utúlië'', translates to "Darkness has come." ''Mornië alantië'' translates as "Darkness has fallen." Each line repeats twice in the song, with the remaining song lyrics written in English. They are intermingled with the Quenya lyrics, as in the second stanza; "''Mornië utúlië'', believe and you will find your way; ''Mornië alantië'', a promise lives within you now." Enya also performed another song "

Aníron The music of ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series was composed, Orchestration, orchestrated, Conductor (music), conducted and produced by Howard Shore between 2000 and 2004 to support Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (film series), film tr ...

" for ''The Lord of the Rings'', which is sung in another of Tolkien's Elvish languages, Sindarin.

Critical reception and awards

"May It Be" was nominated for the 2002

, but lost to

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

's " If I Didn't Have You" from '' Monsters, Inc.'', sung by

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy series ''Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he rec ...

and

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

. It won the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Song and the 2002

Critics' Choice Movie Award The Critics' Choice Movie Awards (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award) is an awards show presented annually by the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association (CCA) to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Writt ...

for Best Song. It was nominated for the 2002

, but lost to "

Until Until may refer to Music *''Until'', a 1967 album by Robin Kenyatta *''Until'', a 2008 album by One Little Plane *"Until", a song by Wilfred Sanderson *A version of the song " Anema e core" with English lyrics * "Until..." (Sting song), a 2001 ...

" from ''

Kate & Leopold ''Kate & Leopold'' is a 2001 American romantic-comedy fantasy film that tells a story of a physicist by the name of Stuart (Liev Schreiber), who accidentally pulls his great‑great‑grandfather, Leopold (Hugh Jackman), through a time portal fr ...

''. The song received a 2003

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nomination for

Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Recipients * Each year is linked t ...

. Enya performed her song at the Academy Awards on 24 March 2002. She was "absolutely" excited about the performance. For her it was the "first time to be nominated, and to get to perform, it's just wonderful, absolutely wonderful."

Release

Enya's "May It Be" has been featured on various albums. On 20 November 2001, it was released on ''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' soundtrack, along with composer Howard Shore's original score "The Road Goes Ever On (Part 2)". It also came out as a single in Europe on 10 December 2001 and in the United Kingdom on 21 January 2002. "May It Be" entered the

at number one. It was Enya's second consecutive single to do so, following her song "

Only Time "Only Time" is a song by Irish musician Enya. It was released in November 2000 as the lead single from her fifth studio album, ''A Day Without Rain'' (2000). The song reached number one in Canada, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, number two in Au ...

". In 2005, it was released as part of the compilation '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings''. This time, the version of the song was identical as featured in the movie's ending titles. Enya also included the song on her 2009 album, '' The Very Best of Enya''.

Music video

The music video was directed by Peter Nydrle. It features clips from the film as well as Enya singing the song. The video runs for 3 minutes and 32 seconds.

Cover versions and samples

Many other artists have covered the song since Enya's original recording. Tara Scammell did so on 2004 album ''Music from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy'' by the

Prague Symphony Orchestra The Prague Symphony Orchestra (Prague, Czech Republic, cs, Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy ''FOK'') is a Czech orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra has traditionally been known by the acronym 'FOK', standing for 'Film-Opera-Koncert' ...

, which consists of songs from all three movies. Celtic Woman performed "May It Be" on their 2005 self-titled album.

Lisa Kelly Lisa Kelly (born 7 May 1977) is an Irish singer of both classical and Celtic music and a voice teacher. She has taken part in many musical theatre productions and concerts, and is a founding and former member of the musical group Celtic Woman ...

of Celtic Woman included it on her 2006 album, ''Lisa''.

Hayley Westenra Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987) is a New Zealand classical crossover singer and songwriter. Her first internationally released album, ''Pure'', reached number one on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million c ...

recorded it in 2005 on her second international album, ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''. It was also covered in 2006 by Lex van Someren for ''Christmas Every Day'' and Angelis for their self-titled album. It was sung on

Cecelia Cecelia is a variation of the given name Cecilia. People with the name include: * Cecelia Adkins (1923–2007, African-American publisher * Cecelia Ager (1902–1981), American film critic and reporter * Cecelia Ahern (born 1981) is an Irish noveli ...

’s 2007 album, ''Amazing Grace''.

Sofia Källgren Anna Sofia Helena Källgren, known as Sofia Källgren (born 17 August 1970, Högsbo, Sweden), is a Swedish singer. She sings in two other languages, English and Mandarin Chinese, in addition to in Swedish. In 1982 she debuted on the TV-program ...

featured it on her 2008 album, ''Cinema Paradiso''. Other artists who have covered it include Uruk-hai, Hayley Griffiths (on Celtic Rose), and Kiri Te Kanawa. It was performed on 14 January 2012 by Faroese artist

Eivør Pálsdóttir Eivor, Eivør or Øyvor is a female given name in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, 4,922 people bear the name. The average age is 78. The name perhaps originated from either the Proto-Norse word ''auja'', which is thought to mean "good luck", o ...

as part of the celebration of

Margrethe II Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent fema ...

's 40th anniversary as Queen of Denmark.

Jackie Evancho Jacqueline Marie Evancho ( ; born April 9, 2000) is an American classical crossover singer who gained wide recognition at an early age. Since 2009, she has issued a platinum-selling EP and nine albums, including three ''Billboard'' 200 top 10 ...

covered "May It Be" on her 2017 album '' Two Hearts''.

Voces8 Voces8, styled VOCES8, is an a cappella octet from England. They have appeared internationally and made recordings of classical music, jazz, pop, and their own arrangements. Recent recordings are for Decca Classics and under their own label, Voc ...

covered "May It Be" in their album Enchanted Isle in 2018. "May It Be" was sampled by Swiss DJ

Dinka The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out ...

in her 2010 track "The Celtic of Scotland".

Track listings

European CD single and UK cassette single # "May It Be" – 3:30 # "Isobella" – 4:27 European maxi-CD single and UK CD single # "May It Be" – 3:30 # "Isobella" – 4:27 # "The First of Autumn" – 3:08

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

May It Be "May It Be" is a song by Irish recording artist Enya. It was composed by Enya and Roma Ryan for Peter Jackson's 2001 film '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring''. The song entered the German Singles Chart at number one in 2002 a ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:May It Be 2001 singles 2001 songs Enya songs The Lord of the Rings (film series) music Number-one singles in Germany Songs with lyrics by Roma Ryan Songs with music by Enya