Dolores O'Riordan fronted the Cranberries as lead vocalist, establishing herself among the standout women on the early-’90s alternative-rock scene. The youngest of seven siblings, she was born in Limerick on September 6, 1971, and found early refuge in music through childhood singing as well as performances on classical piano and harmonium for church congregations.
She auditioned in 1990 for the Limerick outfit Cranberry Saw Us and landed the role of lead singer after her lilting vocals impressed the other members. The band promptly adopted the name the Cranberries, circulated demo recordings that attracted major-label interest, and would have issued their debut, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We, sooner had management difficulties not pushed the release back to 1993.
No Need to Argue followed the next year; its opening single, “Zombie,” delivered international success across several countries and placed O’Riordan squarely in the public spotlight. To the Faithful Departed appeared in 1996, with Bury the Hatchet arriving three years later.
Although the Cranberries’ commercial fortunes declined steadily through the remainder of the decade, the group still delivered Wake Up and Smell the Coffee in 2001 and the retrospective Stars: The Best of 1992-2002 the following year. Shortly afterward the members announced a split, freeing O’Riordan to concentrate on family, on overcoming the anorexia and anxiety that had accompanied her years in the spotlight, and on solo work.
She supplied the song “Pure Love” to Italian superstar Zucchero’s duet project Zucchero & Co., then issued her own debut album, Are You Listening, worldwide in May 2007. Two years later came the follow-up No Baggage, released at the same time she made her screen-acting bow in David Grieco’s Secrets of Love.
The Cranberries resumed activity with a 2010 reunion tour that led to the 2012 album Roses. O’Riordan remained largely out of view until a 2015 meeting with former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke prompted her to join the supergroup D.A.R.K. alongside Rourke and New York producer/songwriter Ole Koretsky. Together the three arranged and produced the New Wave-inspired Science Agrees (Cooking Vinyl), issued in 2016. The Cranberries returned the next year with Something Else, an acoustic reworking of earlier hits that also contained three new tracks.
O’Riordan died in London, England, on January 15, 2018, at the age of 46.
