And Winter Came… is the seventh studio album by Irish singer, songwriter, and musician Enya, released in November 2008 by Warner Music. After recording new Christmas songs for her fourth EP Sounds of the Season: The Enya Collection (2006). It was recorded with her longtime collaborators, arranger and producer Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan.
Enya decided to record an album of Christmas music, a project that she had wanted to do for some time. She was inspired by the idea as winter is her favourite time of year, calling it “very reflective […] very calming”, during which she spends the most time developing sketches of music that she had put down throughout the year. Initially, Enya approached the project with the idea of combining tracks from the Sounds of the Season EP with some new material, but this was scrapped when an album of songs of a Christmas or winter theme was more attractive as the new music that Enya had developed suited it better.
An album launch party was held on 8 October 2008 at Two Temple Place in Temple, London, which was decorated for the occasion in the theme of the album. This was followed by a press conference given by Enya the next day at The Dorchester hotel. A second launch party was held on 3 November 2008 at the Grosse Orangerie Charlottenburg building in Berlin and featured dancers of the Berlin State Ballet performing choreography set to Enya songs.
The album received mixed to positive reviews from music critics and became a worldwide success, reaching the top 10 in 21 countries in its first three weeks, including No. 8 on the US Billboard 200 and No. 6 in the UK. The track “Trains and Winter Rains” was the album’s only physical single, and was followed by “Dreams Are More Precious”, “White is in the Winter Night”, and “My! My! Time Flies!”, released as digital downloads. To promote the album, Enya made several interviews, appearances, and live performances. The album has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
