"Only Time" is a song by Irish musician

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 released in November 2000 as the lead single from her fifth studio album, ''

A Day Without Rain ''A Day Without Rain'' is the fifth studio album by the Irish singer, songwriter and musician Enya, released on 20 November 2000 by WEA. Following a promotional tour in support of her compilation album ''Paint the Sky with Stars'' (1997), Enya ...

'' (2000). The song reached number one in Canada, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, number two in Austria, and became Enya's only top-10 single as a solo artist in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Release

In 2001, "Only Time" was released again as a radio

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

. The track was remixed and mastered by the Swiss American Federation (S.A.F. aka Christian B. and Marc Dold) with a final mix by

's producer,

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 ...

. Enya donated the earnings from the sale of that single to the Widows' and Children's Fund of the Uniformed Firefighters Association to help the families of firefighters in the aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. Following the attacks, sales of the album and its lead single, "Only Time", skyrocketed after it was used by several radio and television networks in their coverage and aftermath of the attacks. As a result, "Only Time" climbed to number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart and number one on the

adult contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

. In 2002, the song received an

ECHO Award Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and it was set up to hono ...

for Best Single of the Year.

Music video

The song's music video, which shows Enya performing the song in a spring, summer, fall and winter theme, was directed by

Graham Fink Graham Fink is a Multimedia artist and one of the world's most awarded creatives. He was recently Chief Creative Officer at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in China. Before taking up that appointment in April 2011 he was Executiv ...

. It was released in 2000. In March 2020, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the recording, the video was remastered in 4K.

Live performances

Enya performed "Only Time" several times, performances included ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles s ...

'', '' Children in Need'', '' This Morning'', '' The View'', ''Happy Xmas Show'', ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...

'', ''

Live! with Regis and Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

'', ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

'' and

2001 World Music Awards The 2001 World Music Awards (13th Annual World Music Awards) were held in the Sporting Club, Monaco on May 2, 2001. The World Music Awards recognise the best selling artists around the world based on statistics supplied by the International Federati ...

Track listings

UK CD and cassette single (2000) # "Only Time" # "The First of Autumn" # "The Promise" German CD single (2000) # "Only Time" # "The First of Autumn" Remix CD single (2001) # "Only Time" (remix) # "Oíche Chiúin (Silent Night)" # "Willows on the Water" # "Only Time" (original version) European CD single (2001) # "Only Time" (remix) – 3:14 # "Only Time" (original version) – 3:38 US CD single (2001) # "Only Time" (remix) – 3:13 # "Oíche Chiúin (Silent Night)" – 3:45 # "Willows on the Water" – 3:02 US 7-inch single (2001) :A. "Only Time" (remix) – 3:13 :B. "

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 and ...

" (edit) – 3:30

Credits and personnel

Credits are lifted from the ''

'' album booklet. Studio * Recorded at Aigle Studio (

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...

, Ireland) * Mastered at 360 Mastering (London, England) Personnel * Enya – composition, all instruments and voices, arrangement, mixing *

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 ...

– lyrics * Wired Strings – additional strings * Nicky Ryan – production, arrangement, mixing, engineering * Dick Beetham – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

In popular culture

On 13 November 2013, The Epic Split advertisement was launched for the

Volvo Trucks Volvo Trucks ( sv, Volvo Lastvagnar) is a truck manufacturing division of Volvo based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Trucks was a separate company within Volvo. The Volvo Group was reorganised on 1 January 2012 and as a part of the process, Vo ...

Volvo FM The Volvo FM is a heavy truck range produced by the Swedish company Volvo Trucks. It was originally introduced as FM7, FM10 and FM12 in 1998. FM stands for Forward control Medium height cab, where the numbers denominate an engine capacity in litre ...

range and featured the song and

Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the a ...

. The success of the ad caused "Only Time" to re-enter the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 43, and the UK Singles Chart at number 95.

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

later used the song in advertisements showing parents relaxing while their kids eat Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. The song was featured in the 2018

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

film ''

Deadpool 2 ''Deadpool 2'' is a 2018 American superhero comedy film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel to ''Deadpool'' (2016) and the eleventh installment overall in the ''X-Men'' film series. ...

'', as well as the 2022 Marvel film '' Thor: Love and Thunder''. The song is also played in goal reviews of all

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and were founde ...

home games at the

American Airlines Center The American Airlines Center (AAC) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the Victory Park neighborhood in downtown Dallas, Texas. The arena serves as the home of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association and the Dallas ...

. The song has been widely used as an

internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

depicting various scenes that end in tragedy.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000 singles 2000 songs 2001 singles Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles Charity singles following the September 11 attacks Enya songs Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Poland Number-one singles in Switzerland Songs with lyrics by Roma Ryan Songs with music by Enya Warner Music Group singles Internet memes introduced in the 2000s