RIP DOLORES O’RIORDAN The music industry is in mourning—and shock—after the sudden death of The Cranberries’ legendary frontwoman.
Troubled by depression and fame, The Cranberries singer with the ‘unforgettable’ voice dies suddenly
Laying bare her thoughts on love, loss, depression and motherhood in a telling interview ahead of a concert in Belfast last year, The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’riordan was philosophical about the future. “These days I don’t look too far ahead, I like to take things as they come” she said. “But so far, life is good.” It was a comforting reflection from a woman whose epic highs—international stardom at 18—had been countered by devastating lows—she tried to commit suicide in 2013 but later said she “was meant to stay here for the kids.” Yet that contentment with life made the news of her sudden death (which at press time remained “unexplained”), aged 46, in a hotel room in London’s ritzy Mayfair on Jan. 15 so much more shocking for family, friends and fans. “We are devastated,” her fellow band members, brothers Noel and Mike Hogan, and Fergal Lawler, tweeted. “She was an extraordinary talent and we feel privileged to have been part of her life from 1989 when we started the Cranberries. The world has lost a true artist today.” Irish musician Hozier also paid tribute to the petite singer with the extraordinary voice: “My first time hearing Dolores O’riordan’s voice was unforgettable. It threw into question what a voice could sound like in that context of rock. I’d never heard somebody use their instrument in that way.”
Born in Ireland’s County Limerick in 1971, O’riordan’s connection with music began early, singing from the age of 5 and writing her own songs by the time she was 12. “I’ve never imagined doing anything else,” she told the Irish News in May last year. When she was 18, she heard about three local boys who were looking for a singer for their band, The Cranberry Saw Us. When she provided a rough version of her song “Linger” they hired her immediately. Less than a year later the song reached the US top 10 and the renamed The Cranberries were catapulted into global success, with No. 1 singles in 26 countries and sales of more than 40 million albums worldwide. Their 1994 hit “Zombie”, penned by O’riordan after an IRA bomb killed two young boys in Warrington, England, stayed at No. 1 in Australia for eight weeks and became their signature rock anthem.
But behind the scenes, the motherof-three’s life was often turbulent. Open about her mental-health issues, including depression and bipolar disorder, O’riordan told LIFE Magazine in 2013 she was molested for four years, starting when she was 8 years old, by someone whom she trusted. “I was only a kid,” said the musician—who leaves behind three children, son Taylor, 20, and daughters, Molly, 16, and Dakota, 12 (with ex-husband Don Burton, a former tour manager for Duran Duran).
After finding herself in the glare of the international spotlight at a young age, with five hugely successful albums from 1993 to 2002, O’riordan, along with her band members, succumbed to the relentless workload and called time on their rock group in 2003. “I took the break,” she told the Irish Times in 2012, “and thought at that point that I would never go back to making music, that in my life I needed to find 100 per cent sanity, and that I wanted to be a mother and a wife. I didn’t want to be a famous person or to be in a band.”
Indeed, her children formed the focal point of her life and she and Canadian-born Burton spent the next decade dividing their time between Canada and Ireland. And while the pull of music and the band ultimately reclaimed her (she released two solo albums before reuniting with The Cranberries in 2009), O’riordan said her children remained her touchstone. “Anyone who gets famous so quickly and so young, you’re bound to be a bit of a casualty in some fashion,” she mused. “You go through life, and then you realise you only live once, and that there are some things you might have lost or given away when you were young, so you go back to find them.”
“The world has lost a true artist today”
—The Cranberries