Dolores O'Riordan was an Irish alternative rock singer known for her soaring tones as lead singer of the successful band The Cranberries. When she died aged 46 in January 2018, her longtime bandmate Noel Hogan told Rolling Stone magazine that they had been talking about making their first studio album together in six years and hoped to go on tour in March. Authorities said that her death in a London hotel room was unexplained but not suspicious.
Born in southwest Ireland, she grew up playing music and in 1990 tried out for a local band called Cranberry Saw Us. After a name change to The Cranberries and with O'Riordan as lead singer, the band had several popular albums and singles until 2002 when she decided to look for a solo career. She contributed the song 'Pure Love' to an album by Italian artist Zucchero in 2004 and wrote the lyrics for two songs by composer Angelo Badalamenti that she performed on the soundtrack of the 2004 crime story 'Evilenko' starring Malcolm McDowell. She sang on Jam & Spoon's album 'Tripomatic Fairytales 3003' and appeared as a singer in Adam Sandler's 2006 fantasy film 'Click'.
She made her solo recording debut in 2007 with 'Are You Listening' which went to number five on Billboard's Independent Albums Chart, number 23 on the US Top Rock Albums Chart and number 28 on the UK Official Albums Chart. Another album, 'No Baggage', came out in 2009. The Cranberries reformed in 2010 with another album in 2012 and in 2015 she worked with Andy Rourke and Ole Koretsky in a trio called D.A.R.K.. The Cranberries released an acoustic album in 2017 titled 'Something Else'. Other projects she reportedly had in the works at the time of her death included recording a new version of The Cranberries' hit 'Zombie' with the Los Angeles group Bad Wolves and Eminem. Following her death, hit singles by The Cranberries returned to the top of the charts as well as the album 'Stars: The Best of 1992-2002'.
