- Culture
- 29 Mar 04
Enya's 1987 'Song of Boadicea' has received a new lease on life - and hefty renumeration - courtesy of it's sampling by P.Diddy protegee, Mario Winans.
Enya is in for a six-figure payday courtesy of P. Diddy and the latest signing to his Bad Boy Entertainment label, Mario Winans.
Currently at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, Winans' new single, 'I Don't Wanna Know', features a 12 note sample from a track on Enya's eponymous 1987 album, 'Song Of Boadicea'.
"We had a very nice request from P. Diddy," Enya's manager Nicky Ryan tells The Sunday Times. "The lyrics were fine. It was unusual for P. Diddy to produce such a clean song. The guy singing it is known as a gospel single. Mario is a clean act in that respect so we said 'okay'. We did insist that it said, 'Featuring Enya'."
The official go ahead given, 'I Don't Wanna Know' exploded all over R'n'B radio in the States.
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"It wasn't the obvious choice for the album's first single, but radio programmers and DJs gravitated toward it when it appeared on mixtapes, so Bad Boy had no choice but to release it officially," Winans enthuses. "I was so excited about that. It was definitely one of my favorite songs on the album. The Fugees flipped the same beat a few years ago for their classic "Ready Or Not'. I first heard 'Boadicea' at the end of the movie Sleepwalkers about five or six years ago. It's something I always wanted to produce. Then when The Fugees did it, oh my God, I loved it."
Winans will have to hand over 60% of the royalties – 40% less than The Fugees whose 'Ready Or Not', sampled 'Song Of Boadicea' without permission.
Said Ryan at the time: "The main issue here is to show we mean business, and this kind of blatant infringement won't be tolerated."