Pop star’s mystery death aged just 46 in top hotel
DOLORES O’Riordan, lead singer of Nineties rock band the Cranberries, was found dead in a hotel room yesterday.
The body of the Irish singer, who was 46 and had suffered from bipolar disorder, was discovered at the Hilton on Park Lane, London.
Detectives described her death as ‘unexplained’ and said that inquiries were continuing.
Miss O’Riordan, who was in London for a recording session, had three children with ex-husband Don Burton, a former tour manager for Duran Duran to whom she was married for 21 years.
Their son Taylor, 20, and daughters Molly, 16, and Dakota, 12, live with their father in Canada.
Renowned for her distinctive singing voice, Miss O’Riordan was 18 when she successfully auditioned to be the lead singer of the Cranberries.
The Irish band went on to release five albums, selling more than 40million copies worldwide, and were nominated for the best international group at the Brit Awards in 1995. In 1997 they won an Ivor Novello award for the controversial single Zombie, inspired by an IRA bombing that killed two children.
The band split in 2003 before reforming in 2009 and embarking on a reunion tour around America.
But in May last year they cancelled a string of shows after Miss O’Riordan was told by doctors to stop working for a month for medical reasons associated with a back problem. A further set of shows in North America, which had been due to take place in September and October, were cancelled in July.
On December 20 Miss O’Riordan tweeted from the band’s official account: ‘Hi all, Dolores here. Feeling good! I did my first bit of gigging in months at the weekend, performed a few songs at the Billboard annual staff holiday party in New York with the house band. Really enjoyed it!’
Her last tweet was on January 4 this year when, pictured with a cat, she said: ‘Bye, bye Gio. We’re off to Ireland.’
Despite huge international success, the Limerick-born singer had a troubled life. She said she had a ‘terrible self-loathing’, which had been worsened by her accelerating career and led to anorexia.
In 2013 she revealed she had endured years of sexual abuse as a child, starting when she was eight. Speaking about the aftermath, she told the Belfast Telegraph: ‘It was something that I noticed manifested itself in my behaviour and the pathologies I began to develop in my early adult life, such as my eating disorder, depression and eventually the breakdowns.
‘I think I am getting stronger for sure. But I’ll always be a bit of a train wreck. Nobody’s perfect.’ She admitted that she had ‘tried to overdose’ in 2012.
An incident in 2014 raised fears for her health after she assaulted an air hostess on a flight from New York to Ireland and then attacked police sent to restrain her.
She pleaded guilty to the assaults, with her lawyer telling a court the breakdown in her marriage had caused her emotional stress. She was fined £4,690 after medical reports said she had been suffering a manic episode and remembered nothing about it.
Irish president Michael D Higgins spoke of his ‘great sadness’ as he led tributes to the singer.
‘Dolores O’Riordan and The Cranberries had an immense influence on rock and pop music in Ireland and internationally,’ he said. ‘To all those who follow and support Irish music, Irish musicians and the performing arts her death will be a big loss.’ Irish singer Ronan Keating tweeted: ‘Totally shocked at the news about Dolores O’Riordan, an incredible talent and a lovely soul.’
Her bandmates Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler tweeted: ‘We are devastated on the passing of our friend Dolores. She was an extraordinary talent and we feel very privileged to have been part of her life from 1989 when we started the Cranberries. The world has lost a true artist today.’
‘An immense influence’