Dolores O'Riordan

Among those honoring O'Riordan were the Cranberries, Olé Koretsky, Andy Rourke former bassist of the Smiths, Stephen Street, U2, Duran Duran, Liz Phair, Benjamin Kowalewicz, James Corden, Roger Bennett, Hozier, Foster the People, Pearl Jam, Elijah Wood, Josh Groban, Chris Cornell’s brother Peter, Bryan Adams, Halsey, Kodaline, the The, Michael Stipe, R.E.M., Dave Davies of the Kinks, Garbage, Adele, Dan Brodbeck, Graham Hopkins, Slash, Francois Arnaud, Diplo, Gao Xiaosong, and many others expressed their condolences on social media. Along with The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace, Ali Hewson, Adi Roche and Chernobyl Children International.

On 24 April 2019, Saint Sister, a duo from Northern Ireland, performed an a cappella rendition of the song "Dreams" by the Cranberries at Lyra McKee's funeral in St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast, who was killed by the Real IRA on 18 April 2019.

After her death, bandmate Noel Hogan confirmed that the Cranberries band name would be retired after the release of their 2019 album. He stated: "We don't want to continue without Dolores, so we're just going to leave after this".

Kate Siamro, writer and curator at Spinster Records, USA, noted that "not all of the people who buy Prince, Bowie or Cranberries records are grieving fans". The Cranberries dominated Amazon’s music digital sales in the 24 hours following O’Riordan’s death announcement, along with her solo work, with sales surging on the site by 913,350% of their album Something Else. Furthermore, the Cranberries and O’Riordan's albums dominated Amazon's ranking of physical CD and vinyl sales. The band’s albums went on 3rd, 6th, 7th and 9th on the iTunes Top 10 Albums chart.

According to Stuart Clark, who wrote the press release for the Cranberries' first ever cassette EP, O'Riordan was an artist who "left an indelible mark", and she was portrayed as an Irish female icon. TV producer Larry Bass regarded her as "not only an icon but an Irish female icon. Very few Irish women had achieved the heights that she had on a global stage". For contemporary Ireland's singers, O'Riordan is considered as a "beacon for future generations of singers", stated Hot Press editorial writer Peter McGoran. Irish President Michael D Higgins praised O’Riordan’s and the band’s "immense influence on rock and pop music in Ireland and internationally".

O'Riordan's final social media post, looking to the future, occurred on 4 January 2018. She remained in the band until her death.

—Sneha Bengani, 16 January 2018, about O'Riordan following her death.

In January 2018 O'Riordan travelled from New York, where she lived, to London to work with Martin "Youth" Glover on her side project D.A.R.K. and to meet representatives of the BMG record label about a new album of the Cranberries.

O’Riordan arrived at the London Hilton on Park Lane hotel in Mayfair on January 14. At 2:00 am on 15 January 2018, O'Riordan had a phone call with her mother. Later that morning, she was found unresponsive in the bathroom and was pronounced dead at 9:16 am. The cause of death was not immediately made public until an inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court held on 6 September, which ruled that she died as a result of accidental drowning in a bath, following sedation by alcohol intoxication. Empty bottles were found in O'Riordan's room (five miniature bottles and a champagne bottle) as well as some prescription drugs, but toxicology tests showed that her body contained only "therapeutic" amounts of these medications but 330 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood (3.30g/l), a blood alcohol content of 0.33%.

On 21 January 2018, O'Riordan's funeral opened three days of mourning in Ireland. Funeral plans included a service reserved for extended family and close friends. A three-day funeral in her hometown, with O'Riordan lying in repose, lasted from 20 to 22 January at St Joseph's Church. In a tribute normally reserved for Presidents, heads of State and Popes, thousands streamed past her open coffin, in a four-hour public reposing inside St Joseph's Church in the city. O'Riordan, wearing dark eyeshadow, with raven hair, was laid out in an open coffin wearing black and holding a set of pearl rosary beads. O'Riordan's songs were played, while photographs of the singer performing and one of her with Pope John Paul II were placed along the walls. Friends left a floral tribute next to the coffin, which read: "The song has ended, but the memories linger on".

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, was one of the first to pay his respects. The Taoiseach of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, also paid his respects to O'Riordan. Polish President Andrzej Duda paid his respects as well. Also, in recognition of O'Riordan's influence, the Avett Brothers covered the Cranberries song "Linger". Bono and Johnny Depp performed a tribute for O'Riordan ending the performance on "Linger", at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland, just hours after the sudden death of O'Riordan. Bono, Sinead O'Connor, Johnny Depp and Nick Cave gave to Dolores O'Riordan a standing ovation at a birthday party for Shane MacGowan, singer of the Pogues. On the announcement of her death on 15 January 2018, O'Riordan appeared on the huge 360° screen overhanging the Madison Square Garden floor in New York City during a New York Rangers game. A photo of this appearance was published on 17 January 2018 on Facebook by Madison Square Garden.

On 29 March 2018, Mayor Stephen Keary presented the book of condolences with over 16,000 signatures to Dolores' mother Eileen, brothers Donal, Terry and Joe and other family members.

On the night of her death, 15 January 2018, O'Riordan left a voice message at 1:12 am to her longtime friend, Managing Director of E7LG-Europe, Dan Waite, where she offered to sing on a cover of "Zombie" that Waite had previously given O'Riordan to listen to and accredit. TMZ published this voice message on 5 April 2018. On 18 January, the heavy metal band Bad Wolves released this cover of "Zombie" (originally by the Cranberries), which charted on multiple Billboard charts.

On 28 January 2018, the In Memoriam segment of the 60th Annual Grammy Awards honored a number of music icons as O'Riordan.

"Dreams" was played in Croke Park to the capacity 82,000 crowd on 19 August 2018, after Limerick won the Liam MacCarthy Cup in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship for the first time in 45 years. The cup was later toured around Limerick and was brought by the team to O'Riordan's family home in Ballybricken.

In January 2018, the Dallas Observer credited O'Riordan alongside David Bowie, Prince and Tom Petty as iconic musicians who died between 2016 and 2018. In 2018, the South Coast Herald stated that "Dolores O’Riordan and The Cranberries inspired millions". O'Riordan's continues to inspire contemporary artists around the world, while having a lasting impact on various musical styles; following news of her death, Maggie Rogers said "Dolores O’Riordan’s voice helped my find my place in the world". AsiaOne argued that the Cranberries, especially O'Riordan's voice and singing style, have influenced many Chinese musicians and have had an unprecedented lasting impact in popular music across Asia. The BBC added that O'Riordan was a major musical influence to Faye Wong, one of China's biggest pop stars. Others influenced by O'Riordan includes Florence Welch, Adele, Heather Baron-Gracie and Michelle Branch.

On 19 February 2018, RTÉ One broadcast a 40-minute documentary entitled Dolores, including never before seen interviews, and produced by Dave Fanning.

In late April 2017, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band, the Cranberries released a new studio album Something Else, featuring of acoustic versions of their greatest hits, and backed by the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Three new songs appear on this album: "Rupture," "Why" and "The Glory" the last song written by O’Riordan and Noel Hogan, in their song-writing partnership. The album was well received by critics; reviewers have praised "the return of one of Ireland's finest songsmiths", and reacted favourably to the orchestral and acoustic reimagining. Music critic Karen Gwee has described O'Riordan's voice "more measured, more liable and rich with maturity", whilst "the thinness of her voice dilutes the anxious energy of "Animal Instinct", one of the album's tracks". In May 2017, the band started the world tour as acoustic concerts, with a string quartet. Most of the time, Dolores O'Riordan sang seated on a stool. After eleven shows, O'Riordan said to be in "excruciating pain". The Cranberries published on social media the cancellation of the sold-out tour in Europe and North America, stating that Dolores' back problem was in the mid to upper area of her spine and diaphragmatic movements associated with breathing and singing exacerbated the pain. During her rest, Dolores O'Riordan had been planning a new album of the Cranberries, and had written and recorded demo versions in her final years. In 2017 O'Riordan bought a new house near her hometown of Limerick. In May 2017, she publicly discussed her bipolar disorder, which she said had been diagnosed in 2015. According to Lorraine Wylie writing in Irish, Scottish and UK newspapers, music was more a therapy than a commodity for O'Riordan. At this point, living in Ireland, O'Riordan admitted that "there have been times when I’ve struggled. The death of my father and mother-in-law was very hard. Looking back, I think depression, whatever the cause, is one of the worst things to go through. Then again, I’ve also had a lot of joy in my life, especially with my children. You get ups as well as downs. Sure isn’t that what life’s all about?". In September 2017, O'Riordan began composing a suicide note while drinking heavily and taking Lorazepam. Dolores O'Riordan's last public performance was on 14 December 2017 in New York, she sang three songs of the Cranberries at Billboard 's Christmas party. In late 2017, O'Riordan was recovering and then she confirmed her appearance at Billboard private event, which led devotees to believe she would soon performing again. On 15 December 2017, Eminem released his album Revival which included a large sample from the song "Zombie" as the hook for his rap song "In Your Head". A US psychotherapist assessed O'Riordan on 26 December 2017, suggesting an abstinence from alcohol and noted no suicidal thoughts.

In January 2015, O'Riordan returned to the US, where she bought an apartment in East Village of New York.

In 2015, O'Riordan developed a relationship with Russian musician Olé Koretsky, with whom she shared the last years of her life.

In mid-January 2014, between shoots for The Voice she stated that she had written fifteen songs for a new solo album and she planned to go to Los Angeles in order to elaborate the start of the album. In April 2014, disillusioned by her experiences in the music industry, O'Riordan told Barry Egan that the record business made her "extraordinarily wealthy, but sucked the blood out of her, like a particularly ferocious vampire". In mid-July 2014, O'Riordan had announced that she would not return to The Voice of Ireland for a second season due to her health condition affected by flights from Dublin to Canada during seven weeks of filming. O'Riordan and her husband Burton ended their relationship in September 2014 after 20 years together. Following her split from husband, she suffered from serious depression in 2014 and her mental health issues were compounded by alcohol use. O'Riordan left Canada and moved to New York, first in a hotel in Union Square, then in Trump Tower. On 10 November 2014, O'Riordan was arrested and charged in connection with air rage on an Aer Lingus flight from JFK to Shannon airport. During the flight, she grew verbally and physically abusive to the crew. When police were arresting her, she resisted, reminding them that her taxes paid their wages and shouting "I'm the Queen of Limerick! I'm an icon!", headbutting one Garda officer and spitting at another. Later she told the media that she had been stressed from living in New York hotels following the end of her 20-year marriage. She allegedly fractured the air hostess' foot during the incident and had been medically assessed at University Hospital, escorted by Shannon Police. Eileen O'Riordan stated that her daughter was in a fragile mental state and that medical results indicated there was no alcohol or drugs detected in her daughter's system. The judge hearing her case agreed to dismiss all charges if she apologised in writing to her victims and contributed €6,000 to the court poor box. Her family described Dolores as "strong-minded and determined"; however, discussing her mental instability and her volatile vulnerability in a 2014 interview with the Belfast Telegraph, O'Riordan explained that she "carried quite a burden of pain and torment from her past". O'Riordan subsequently divorced from Don Burton. Not long afterward, O'Riordan was staying in on the Adare Manor estate in Ireland until the end of 2014, alternating with stays at the hospital.

In April 2014, O'Riordan began recording new material with Jetlag, a collaboration between Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Olé Koretsky, a DJ and producer based in New York. They then formed a trio under the name D.A.R.K. Their first album, Science Agrees, was released in September 2016.

O'Riordan was recognised for her raw natural voice, Hogan corroborated this on Officialcharts, he stated: "we weren't going to start using Auto-Tune and all that shite. She would absolutely kill us", speaking of the building of the Cranberries' latest album, In the End, created from demo voices recorded by O'Riordan before her death. O'Riordan tended to let her breathing be heard on the albums, prefering to focus on the delivery while emphasizing expressiveness and nuance rather than being perfectionnist, saying "keep it natural, keep it real"—adding, "when it’s too clean, when people go in and try to clean up the breath to make it sound seamless, it takes away from the reality". The voice recording protocol had evolved over the years, O'Riordan was worried about "oversinging and smothering the raw emotion in her delivery", as a result, she did not come to work in studios during daylight hours with Fergal Lawler and the two Hogan brothers. Lawler told David Browne in a 2019 Rolling Stone interview: "Dolores would come in to do the vocals and we'd have a chat. She'd have a listen to what we'd done and then we'd head off and let her do her thing. So in the evening time, you're almost looking out in the corridor to see if she's coming in."

The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies and close friend of O'Riordan had planned to collaborate on songs together before she died; they had an idea for a song called "Home"—"about being home again".

In July 2013, Dolores O'Riordan, with her husband Don Burton and their three children went to live in Ireland, in the exclusive area of Abington, in the north of Dublin, and they eventually developed the idea of buying a house. O'Riordan replaced Sharon Corr as one of the mentors on RTÉ's The Voice of Ireland during the 2013–14 season. O'Riordan reached the final of the competition with her act Kellie Lewis, who finished in second place. In October 2013, O'Riordan and Marco Mendoza reconvened their partnership and were working on the songs for her announced third solo album scheduled for 2014, and presumably some film possibilities. O'Riordan's mental health, by her own later admission, was withering alarmingly. In October 2013, O'Riordan told journalist and close friend Barry Egan in the Sunday Independent's LIFE magazine that she attempted suicide in 2013 by overdosing on medication, but "wanted to live for her kids". O'Riordan's family moved back to Canada in November 2013, considering they were used to the outdoors and the wilderness. Towards the end of 2013, O'Riordan returned to live in Ireland, a decision that foreshadowed the failing of her marriage. Her final performance at the Vatican's Christmas Concert (Concerto di Natale) in Roma, Italy occurred in December 2013. She performed four songs : "Letting Go" from Are You Listening?, "Silent Night" in duet with Elisa Toffoli, "Away In A Manger" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". In the autumn of 2013, as her hometown of Limerick was preparing to start its tenure as Irish City of Culture in 2014, O'Riordan was approached by the city to play a special gig. During a New Year's Eve party under the Spire of St Mary's Cathedral, she performed with a quartet from the Irish Chamber Orchestra, playing "Linger", "Zombie" and one solo, "The Journey".

I draw from a lot of different life experiences: births, deaths, war, pain, depression, anger, sadness. [ ... ] I found it very easy to write lyrics when I was younger because I had no inhibitions – they just came pouring out. I find as I get older it's more difficult: you develop fears and you go, 'What will people think of this?' But it's important not to think too much about what people will think, because then you'll never write!

We're all looking at each in the room going, 'where did that come out from?' because she was so small and tiny – you didn't expect that. And then she only grew from that point on. As the years went down, she just got better and better."

In October 2013, O'Riordan spoke publicly of her painful personal history. She moved with her family at the age of seven to a busy neighbourhood surrounded by many people while her mother worked long hours to support the family. During that time, O'Riordan was sexually abused by a family friend for four years, between the ages of eight and 12. Then she developed depression and experienced deep self-loathing and suicidal thoughts over the years which had been worsened by her accelerating career and led to anorexia. Subsequently, she described her family, especially her children, as "her salvation". Her father died in 2011, and at his funeral in County Limerick, the man who abused her introduced himself to her, saying that "he came and cried and said 'Sorry' ". O'Riordan said in 2013 "I had nightmares for a year before my father's death about meeting him. [ ... ] I didn't see him for years and years and then I saw him at my father's funeral. I had blocked him out of my life". O'Riordan was treated by psychotherapist Beechy Colclough who also treated Michael Jackson, Elton John and Robbie Williams.

On 22 March 2012, the Cranberries cancelled nine minutes before the show at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, O'Riordan suffered from food poisoning and was unable to perform. When she recovered, the Roses Tour resumed two days later and the cancelled show was rescheduled for 26 March. In May 2012, the final two concerts of the North American tour of the Cranberries had to be postponed for a then undisclosed reason, which was later said to involve from O'Riordan's "hectic touring schedule"; this caused some uncertainty about the upcoming European leg of the tour. For the second leg of the Roses World Tour, O'Riordan hired a touring backing vocalist, Johanna Cranitch. During anterior tours, backup vocals were performed by the band's backup guitarist, Steve DeMarchi. In November 2012, the extent to which her father's death was now affecting O'Riordan was made public when she admitted in Le Télégramme that she was unable to perform "Ode to My Family" throughout the 32 shows of the second leg of the European tour; O'Riordan said "I hope to be able to sing it back one day, but for now, it's too soon".

O'Riordan was a mezzo-soprano, with a vocal range from B2 to C6. She did not sing much in the 5th octave but rather in an area where she was most comfortable singing in. Familiar to the 90s alt-rock belt, but always devoted to her love of falsetto, her voice was rather light without applying an uncomfortable weight and she characteristically deployed a soft projection when she sang the lowest notes. Her signature singing style integrated a wide range of elements such as the lilting voice, the Celtic folklore whose mournful keening, the glottal ornamentation and the distinctive attack on syllables. Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times commented, "She had a high, airy tone that could turn ferocious without warning. She emphasized its breaks and curls, decorating the catchy melodies she wrote with florid vocal runs inherited from Celtic tradition." She was also renowned for her yodeling techniques, embracing the sharp break of her voice. She had never compromised her strong Irish accent even when she was criticized for that, the University of Limerick wrote about O'Riordan's voice, "Dolores's voice carried strong traces of the Sean Nós (old style) Gaelic tradition of unaccompanied singing that so beautifully conveys sadness, regret and loneliness." Singer from the age of 5, around the age of 40 the timbre of her voice changed and became more mature, in 2012 she mentioned the stressful uses of the voice and aging process itself. Melody Maker described ORiordan's voice as "the voice of a saint trapped in a glass harp", whilst her longtime friend and former manager, record executive Dan Waite described O'Riordan in 2018 as "the strongest female voice in Rock for the past three decades". Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said O'Riordan was "the voice of a generation".

On 1 July 2011, a concert entitled "TU Warszawa" / "Here, Warsaw" was the main event of the inauguration of Poland's presidency of the EU council. O'Riordan performed "Zombie" and "I Lied" (English version of the Polish song "Skłamałam") with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, in Warsaw, Poland. At this point in her career, to keep up with her bookings, negotiations and finances, O'Riordan began to be managed by Danny Goldberg, former Kurt Cobain and Nirvana manager. Goldberg has also managed Sonic Youth and Courtney Love's band Hole. O'Riordan celebrated the reunion by touring with the Cranberries across Asia in July 2011, where the crowd was "impressed with her wide vocal range and strong vocal control". On 25 November 2011, O'Riordan's father died at his home in Limerick after six years of fighting cancer. According to O'Riordan, he held on to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary on 14 November. During the six years of their hiatus, O'Riordan and Noel Hogan occasionally shared ideas. In 2011, they recorded their sixth album, Roses with longtime producer Stephen Street, released in February 2012.

The Cranberries reformed and the tour began in North America in mid-November, followed by South America in mid-January 2010 and Europe in March 2010. The band played songs from O'Riordan's solo albums, many of the Cranberries' classics, as well as new songs. In 2010, O'Riordan told Billboard magazine that playing with Fergal Lawler, Noel and Mike Hogan worked better dynamically with her voice. By 2010, however, O'Riordan suffered from vocal cord nodules which caused her doctor to prescribe six weeks of inability to perform. Consequently, concert dates were cancelled and postponed, but the recurring problem persisted until 2012.

In January 2009, the University Philosophical Society (Trinity College, Dublin) invited the Cranberries to reunite for a concert celebrating O'Riordan's appointment as an honorary member of the Society, which led the band members to consider reuniting for a tour and a recording session. Of the event, embracing her performance with the Cranberries, O'Riordan stated that "the minute we started playing it felt like we'd never stopped", pointing out that "it's a chemistry. It just fits". O'Riordan released her second album No Baggage, featuring 11 tracks, in August 2009. The first single "The Journey" was released on 13 July 2009, followed by a second single, "Switch Off the Moment". The music video for "The Journey" was directed by Robin Schmidt and filmed in 16 mm on 8 May 2009, at Howth Beach Pier and at Howth Summit, Dublin, Ireland. The music video aired on 29 July 2009. O'Riordan said of No Baggage "I probably haven’t worn my heart on my sleeve like this since the second album No Need to Argue". Nevertheless, No Baggage was poorly received by music critics compared to Are you Listening?, and neither album replicated the success of the Cranberries. In 2009, O'Riordan and her family moved full-time to Buckhorn, Canada, living in a waterfront home on Big Bald Lake.

On 25 August 2009, while promoting her solo album No Baggage in New York City on 101.9 RXP radio, O'Riordan announced the Cranberries Reunion World Tour of 107 concerts. Following the statement, O'Riordan reported that she deplored the absence of the band before making the decision to tour again, saying of Lawler and the two Hogan brothers that "they're a big part of my heart and soul". In October 2009, O'Riordan attended, along with actresses Tessa Thompson and Emma Bates, an event at The Westwood Theatre in Ontario, after a screening of South Dakota: A Woman's Right to Choose, a film about teenage pregnancy and abortion. O'Riordan moderated a discussion with high school pupils, she remained neutral and allowed the girls to formulate their own opinions. O'Riordan and the Cranberries allowed their songs "Dreams", "Empty" along with "Apple Of My Eye" and "Stupid", to feature in the film released in the US in October 2013.

She credited Johnny McEvoy's song "The Old Bog Road" as one of the most beautiful old Irish songs and praised the Pogues' songs. She made a reference to Ireland's most famous poet, William Butler Yeats, by quoting from one of his poems in her song about his grave. O'Riordan stated the grunge decade was "so creatively it was a really great time", mentioning Pearl Jam, Blind Melon, Nirvana. She wrote the song "I'm Still Remembering" six months after the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In 2009, talking about her three favourite albums, O'Riordan mentioned the Smiths' album The Smiths, Depeche Mode's album Violator, the original soundtrack of the film The Mission. Her other musical influences include Morrissey, Led Zeppelin, also Metallica and James Hetfield whom she met in 1995. She drew her influences from everyday life, events that occurred in the world or her friendly and romantic relationships.

In 2008, O'Riordan won an EBBA Award. Every year the European Border Breakers Awards recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year.

O'Riordan's first solo album, Are You Listening?, was released in May 2007 and was followed up by No Baggage in August 2009. O'Riordan was known for her lilting mezzo-soprano voice, her emphasised use of keening, and her strong Limerick accent. She appeared as a judge on RTÉ's The Voice of Ireland during the 2013–14 season. In April 2014, O'Riordan joined and began recording new material with the trio D.A.R.K.

The music video for "Ordinary Day", directed by Caswell Coggins, was filmed in Prague, in February 2007. Are You Listening? was released in May 2007. "Ordinary Day" was its first single, released in late April, and was produced by BRIT Awards winner, Martin "Youth" Glover, whose previous credits included the Verve, Embrace, Primal Scream, U2, and Paul McCartney. In August "When We Were Young" was released as the second single from the album. Colm O'Hare of Hot Press averred that O'Riordan could have chosen to exploit the underlying sonorities of the Cranberries on Are you Listening? to keep her devotees waiting until the reunion, but instead, "she's done something far more ambitious by releasing this multi-layered collection of songs that traverses styles and genres". At that time, the couple split their time between Dublin and her husband's native Canada "surrounded by bears, wolves and all that great outdoor stuff", said O'Riordan.

O'Riordan performed on many televised live performances in 2007 in support of that record, and travelled to over 22 countries in Europe, North America and South America on the 2007 O'Riordan world tour. On 21 March 2007, she performed on TV show Taratata in Paris, France. On 20 April 2007, O'Riordan made an appearance live on The Late Late Show on RTÉ in Dublin. On 16 May 2007, she appeared on Carson Daly's late-night show, Last Call with Carson Daly, in Burbank, California, in an episode that aired on 18 May 2007. She also appeared on 17 May 2007, on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, California, in an episode that aired on 19 May 2007. On 25 May 2007, O'Riordan performed during a live broadcast of Channel 7's Sunrise in Sydney, Australia. In May 2007 she played six songs acoustically at True Music with Katie Daryl on HDNet in Los Angeles, California, in an episode that aired on 2 September 2007. The same month she performed on the Heaven and Earth Show aired on BBC One. On 29 June 2007, O'Riordan took to the stage of Festivalbar in Catania, Italy. On 2 August 2007, Sanctuary Records UK division ceased their activity and was acquired by UMG at about $88 million. O'Riordan commented, "they started off as a management company for Iron Maiden, maybe 25 years ago. But they’ve been around forever and now they’ve become a record company, and I thought, that looks grand and solid – they’re indie and they’ll be good. Jesus, six months into Are you Listening? they got bought out by Universal in the States...". On 19 November 2007, she cancelled the remainder of her European Tour (Lille, Paris, Luxembourg, Warsaw, and Prague) due to illness. In December 2007, she performed in a few small American clubs, including Des Moines, Nashville, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

In April 2006, O'Riordan signed a contract with Ciulla Management, based in Sherman Oaks, California. Prematurely before the release of her first solo album, the former Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson mentor Tony Ciulla became her manager. She made a cameo appearance in the Adam Sandler comedy Click, released on 23 June 2006, as a wedding singer performing an alternate version of the Cranberries' "Linger", set to strings. On 9 December 2006 she would be invited at Concerto di Natale in Vaticano who took place in Monte-Carlo as the Vatican Christmas Concert was canceled by the Pope Benedict XVI. She sang "Angel Fire" from her forthcoming solo album with an orchestra and Steve DeMarchi, also "Away In A Manger" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". Since she had no label at the time, her husband Don Burton stated that they decided to go with an indie, and therefore, not continue with UMG during her hiatus. In December 2006, Sanctuary Records signed O'Riordan for a solo record deal; of their recently signed artist, Julian Wall of Sanctuary Records noted that "Dolores comes to us with an immense international CV".

In 2005, she appeared on the Jam & Spoon's album Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 as a guest vocalist on the track "Mirror Lover". On 3 December 2005, O'Riordan made her third appearance at the Vatican Christmas Concert, Concerto di Natale in Vaticano, where she performed "War Is Over", "Linger" and "Adeste Fideles" in duet with Italian tenor Gian Luca Terranova.

On 6 March 2004, she performed Ave Maria during the 54th International Song Festival at the Ariston Theater, Sanremo, in northern Italy. On 29 May 2004, O'Riordan performed during the first concert of the Festivalbar, in Milan, Italy. In 2004, she appeared with the Italian artist Zucchero on the album Zu & Co., with the song "Pure Love". The album also featured other artists such as Sting, Sheryl Crow, Luciano Pavarotti, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Macy Gray and Eric Clapton. In 2004,O'Riordan worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks fame on the Evilenko soundtrack, providing vocals on several tracks, including "Angels Go to Heaven", the film's theme song. Badalamenti later said that "she’s a wonderful lyricist with an edge to her voice".

In June 2003, O'Riordan met AC/DC singer Brian Johnson when the Cranberries were playing concerts with AC/DC and the Rolling Stones on the latest leg of their Licks World Tour, and they considered the idea of working together. In mid-July 2003, the two friends started collaborating on material for a project that should have been the rock opera version of Helen Of Troy, based on the Greek mythology—with "rousing anthems, tender ballads and minimal dialogue". Johnson said he's been working on it for about seven years and that the musical to which O'Riodan would lend her voice was expected to feature many artists. The $1.2 million production was initially to debut in March 2003 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Florida. However, despite the pronouncement, the project was adjourned and Johnson expected it to be completed in late 2003 so that it could be played in London.

In 2003, the band decided to take a temporary time-out to experiment with solo projects.

In 2003, O'Riordan recruited Canadian music producer Dan Brodbeck and musicians to develop new compositions for her solo project. Among them was drummer Graham Hopkins, whom O'Riordan said she "loved for his energy". Also included bassist Marco Mendoza, who had been a long time friend with O'Riordan and her husband; while Mendoza's father was a good friend of O'Riordan's father-in-law. As well as Steve DeMarchi as the main guitarist, who used to do live session work with the Cranberries, along with his brother Denny DeMarchi who played keyboards. Brodbeck stated their hiring was "100 per cent based on personalities clicking and musical tastes". DeMarchi brothers' family had long been friends with Dolores O'Riordan's husband and their three children. In a Canadian newspaper, Denny DeMarchi, who played keyboards and guitars for the Cranberries in the early 2000s, stated she was a perfectionist on tour. Occasionally during the show she'd turn to her musicians and cancelled a particular song in the moment. Although the technical crew was frustrated because they had to make various changes, everyone was well aware that "she was emotionally not able to go there". DeMarchi said: "for her, singing wasn't just something to deliver... it was a real experience."

On 7 February 2002, O'Riordan and the Cranberries announced in Dublin that they donated all the proceeds from their single "Time Is Ticking Out" to the Chernobyl Children's Project. She was accompanied at the Clarence Hotel by Ali Hewson, and its founder and executive director, Adi Roche. O'Riordan wrote and recorded the song in spring 2001 after seeing images shared with her by Hewson and Roche of children born with congenital anomalies and illnesses caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 26 April 1986. O'Riordan explained, "I had just given birth to my second child, a beautiful healthy little girl. [ ... ] I had spoken with Ali on the subject before this, but I was so moved, almost to tears, that I wrote Time Is Ticking Out". On 14 December 2002 she received a second invitation to perform at the Vatican Christmas Concert—also called Concerto di Natale in Vaticano. O'Riordan sang "Linger", "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and "Adeste Fideles". Dolores was supported by the Millennium Symphony Orchestra on the three songs, directed by Renato Serio, and also by the Summertime Gospel Choir on "Adeste Fideles".

On 15 December 2001, O'Riordan performed solo in the Vatican as part of the annual Vatican Christmas Concert for Pope John Paul II. She sang "Analyse", "Panis Angelicus", "Little Drummer Boy" and "Silent Night" with a 67-piece orchestra accompanying all artists. The show was broadcast to well over 200 million people around the world.

Dolores had five brothers and one sister. Dolores was the youngest of the seven. Raised Catholic, O'Riordan was an admirer of Pope John Paul II, whom she met twice, in 2001 and 2002. She performed at the invitation of Pope Francis in 2013 at the Vatican's annual Christmas concert. O'Riordan performed at the Vatican Christmas Concert in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2013.

On 12 November 1998, Dolores O'Riordan and Fergal Lawler presented the award for Best Song at the MTV Europe Music Awards, in Milan, Italy. On 11 December 1998, she performed live with the Cranberries at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert at Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway.

Halfway through the Free To Decide World Tour 1996-97 promoting To the Faithful Departed, O'Riordan and the Cranberries canceled the remaining dates announcing that they would take time off in 1997. While the group claimed that "exhaustion" was the result of an extensive touring schedule, pressure from managers—and press intrusion, suspicions and rumours from the press indicated "O'Riordan's health has deteriorated". O'Riordan publicly told Irish Examiner, "I was very depressed and I was extremely anorexic on that record, and as it came out I got progressively worse". O'Riordan was the one who made the decision to take a break, although their management and record company "went mental", the rest of the group supported her. Stephen Street later said that "perhaps she could have tempered her behavior and been more measured, but that wasn’t her way."

She started with traditional Irish music and playing the Irish tin whistle when she went to school. Then she played around with the spoons and the bodhrán and started playing the piano at the age of twelve. She took piano lessons, and achieved Grade 4 in Practical and Grade 8 in Theory. Her formative experiences were as a soloist in the choir in local church and as singer at school. She spent eight years with classical piano and played harmonium in her church for ten years. She described having a strict childhood and didn't get out much until she was seventeen. O'Riordan's childhood consisted of going to piano lessons, going to church, then she had to do her homework and go to bed. She later admitted in an interview in 1995 that she had neglected her lessons in favour of writing music and songs, although at school she became head girl. By her teens, O'Riordan divided the rest of her time between assisting her mother, learning the accordion from her dad, and part-time employment at clothing shops.

O'Riordan was still at Laurel Hill Colaiste FCJ secondary school when she first joined the band. At that time, she had set her sights on the musical life and her desire to be in "a band with no barriers, where I could write my own songs", she told The Guardian in 1995. Academics didn't hold much interest for her, although her grades in school were good. O'Riordan left school without any qualifications.

On 12 September 1995, O'Riordan performed "Ave Maria" along with Luciano Pavarotti in his Pavarotti & Friends series of benefit concerts, entitled Together for the Children of Bosnia, which raised funds for War Child and the children of Bosnia, held in Modena, Italy. Princess Diana, who attended the live performance, told O'Riordan that the song brought her to tears. During the show, O'Riordan performed "Linger" as a duet with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran.

In mid-1995, O'Riordan was one of the richest women in the UK at the age of 24. In 2006, she was one of the 10 richest women in Ireland, and was reported to be the fifth richest woman in 1999. In 2008 she was sixth on the list of the ten richest artists in Ireland, her net worth was $66 million. O'Riordan earned $5 million annually from her musical career and she purchased six luxury cars including Bentley. She had a net worth of $25 million after her divorce, at the time of her death.

At O'Riordan's funeral service, both young and old travelled from all over the world to pay their respects in person, including Spain, China and South America, as well as numerous politicians of Ireland. A place of pilgrimage, the grave of O'Riordan continues to attract devotees from around the world. O'Riordan's commitment to her roots, which was consolidated by her authenticity, attracted fascination. According to Una Mullally of The New York Times, O'Riordan's native accent positioned the Cranberries as a "truly" Irish band playing with a traditionalist mentality of integrity whose "global success was instigated by how America embraced them", by their music videos in "heavy rotation", and "crucially, by American radio". Rolling Stone stated in 1995 that the Cranberries were "Ireland’s biggest musical export since U2". Paul Sexton and others of Billboard, along with The New York Times, have acknowledged O'Riordan and the Cranberries' influence on people, citing them as "one of the biggest-selling rock bands of the '90s". Ethnomusicologist Dr Aileen Dillane, commented that "countless other writers and twitter commentators reminisced upon how the band seemed to encapsulate the 90s zeitgeist, and on the profound impact they and Dolores as lead singer had on their lives and sense of who (and where) they were in the world at that time".

On 18 July 1994, O'Riordan married Canadian-born Don Burton, ten years her senior, the former tour manager of Duran Duran. They met while Duran Duran and the Cranberries were on tour together. In September 1994, the Cranberries released "Zombie", the lead single of their second album No Need To Argue. The song reached No.1 of Triple J's Hottest 100, which was the first time a female-led band had topped the poll. By this time, within the release of the first two albums of the Cranberries with accompanying tours, O'Riordan had achieved both success and celebrity status.

On 18 July 1994, O'Riordan married Don Burton, the former tour manager of Duran Duran, at Holy Cross Abbey in County Tipperary. The couple had three children: Taylor (b. 1997), Molly (b. 2001), and Dakota (b. 2005). O'Riordan had a stepson named Donny Jr., from Burton's previous relationship. In 1996, they lived at The Coach House, a medieval style residence beside Ballyhannon Castle at Quin in County Clare in Ireland. In 1998, the couple bought a 61-hectare (150-acre) stud farm, called Riversfield Stud, located in Kilmallock, County Limerick, before selling it in 2004 at $5 million. They lived in their first home while they planned their ultra-modern house, including a recording studio and guest apartment, set on 16-acre near Dunquin, County Kerry, on the Dingle Peninsula, but they spent little time there and sold the villa later. They then moved to Howth, County Dublin, where O'Riordan acquired a house in 2004—that she had sold in 2010, and spent summers in a log cabin on a property they bought in 1994, near Buckhorn, north of Peterborough, Canada.

As part of the Cranberries, O'Riordan contributed to the release of five albums during this period: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993), No Need to Argue (1994), To the Faithful Departed (1996), Bury the Hatchet (1999), and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001), and a greatest-hits compilation, Stars: The Best of 1992–2002.

O'Riordan penned her first song called "Calling" at the age of 12 years old. She was the lead lyricist and co-composer of the band's songs with guitarist Noel Hogan, although she wrote lot of the song structures. In the early days of the Cranberries, Hogan gave her a sequence of chords he had composed; a week later she came back with lyrics finished of "Linger" and wrote "Sunday" shortly after. O'Riordan described in 1993 that she chose to be a singer and songwriter for the creative aspect, "something new", saying that she would not have been happy singing traditional Irish music for a living. O'Riordan had a preference for solitude as an approach to writing songs. According to Hogan, the Cranberries never changed their writing process after their first encounter. For the whole 30 years in their partnership, O'Riordan and Hogan never sat in a room together and wrote at the same time... "and then we'd meet and go through it then".

Early in 1992, O'Riordan injured her cruciate ligament in a ski accident at the Alps' Val d'Isère and underwent major surgery. Her leg injury reoccurred unexpectedly, and led to cancellation of the three concerts scheduled in Ireland for December 1994. This resulted in a press backlash, while the audience was more understanding, as O'Riordan had mentioned that the concerts were not cancelled but postponed until June 1995.

In mid-1990, on a Sunday afternoon, O'Riordan and Quinn came up at the band's rehearsal room, Noel Hogan later recalled that "Niall came up with Dolores on that Sunday and I remember she was shy, very soft-spoken. Not the Dolores that everyone grew to know. And she comes in and we’re just kind of a gang of young guys sitting around the place. It must have been very, very intimidating for her". O'Riordan sang a couple of songs that she had written herself and she also did a Sinéad O'Connor song, "Troy". The band was impressed and gave her a cassette with instrumentals, asking her if she could work on it. When she returned with a rough version of "Linger", she was hired. Hogan told Rolling Stone that "the minute she sang, you know, it was like your jaw drops at her voice. Dolores was musically far superior to me, because she had been doing it all her life". They recorded demo tapes, including Nothing Left At All, a three-track EP released on tape by local record label Xeric Records, which sold 300 copies. The owner of Xeric Studios, Pearse Gilmore, became their manager and provided the group with studio time to complete another demo tape, which he produced. It featured early versions of "Linger" and "Dreams", which were sent to record companies in the UK. This demo gained attention from both the UK press and record industry, and sparked a bidding war between record labels. Eventually, the group signed with Island Records. The group changed their name to "The Cranberries" and released a four-track EP, Uncertain. Before the recording of the debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, O'Riordan experienced difficult touring conditions with low-income, sleeping on people's floors and in cramped vans across Ireland and UK. Furthermore, she had to overcome her shyness at the time during the early live performances with the Cranberries, singing "with her back to the audience", noted Hogan. Lawler recalled, "we just went up, and we had six songs. Dolores was turned to the side; Noel, Mike and I had our heads down".

O'Riordan has been recognised as a style icon, sporting a pixie cut or buzzed hair in the 1990s, and performing barefoot, saying "it just feels comfortable and honest to pull your toes along the ground". The New York Times mentioned that O'Riordan was responsible for a large portion of Dr. Martens boots sales in the 1990s.

Noel Hogan described how O'Riordan tended to "layer a lot of harmonies, a lot of falsetto stuff" as soon as she first entered the recording studio, Xeric Studios, at the beginning of 1990. O'Riordan used a Neumann U87 microphone for her vocal tracks, and especially during the recording of the debut studio album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?. In an interview with Sound On Sound, in March 2019, Hogan and record producer Stephen Street described that "spontaneity was the key"; Hogan said : "she would like to do maybe three or four takes". Regarding backing vocals she would go through very quickly, he said: "cause she had an amazing ear for tuning", then she ended with her highest notes. She would add additional layers of vocal inflections over the existing main vocals as she went along. In South China Morning Post, Hogan described O'Riordan's voice during the recording of "Linger":

O'Riordan is regarded as a 1990s rock icon and "one of the most distinctive voices in pop history", characterized by a wide spectrum of vocals resources. Recording Academy contributor Philip Merrill called O'Riordan "a gifted songwriter and vocalist whose ballads helped define alt-pop in the 1990s". She was credited for her innovative style embodied by her "measured vocal power, her honest, vulnerable songwriting", reinforced by her Irish accent, thus helping the Cranberries to rise "into worldwide stardom". Amanda Petrusich wrote how she deviated from the norm, saying that most of the other rock singers at the time sounded "plainly and hopelessly cool—disaffected, vaguely antagonistic, and aloof", while "O’Riordan sounded like a maniac". Following news of O'Riordan's death, U2 described O'Riordan' music and vocal style by these words: "out of the West came this storm of a voice – she had such strength of conviction, yet she could speak to the fragility in all of us". Foster the People called O'Riodan "a true pioneer" for future generations.

In 1989, brothers Mike (bass) and Noel (guitar) Hogan formed the Cranberry Saw Us with drummer Fergal Lawler and singer Niall Quinn, in Limerick, Ireland. Less than a year later, Quinn left the band. He then told the remaining members that his girlfriend knew a girl who was looking for a band playing original material.

In 1988, at age seventeen, she learned to play the guitar and performed a solo gig in Laurel Hill secondary school. That same year she met her first boyfriend, Mike O'Mahony. Her mother, who she "adored", encouraged her to consider becoming a nun or get a college degree and become a music teacher; instead, she ran away from home at eighteen and lived a couple of years with her boyfriend. In an interview with VOX Magazine in 1994, O'Riordan clarified the situation she was in at the time after leaving the house, she said:

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan (/oʊ ˈ r ɪər d ən / ; 6 September 1971 – 15 January 2018) was an Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. She was best known as the lead vocalist for the alternative rock band the Cranberries from 1990 until they took a six-year hiatus starting in 2003. They later reunited in 2009, disbanding in 2019 following her death.

Dolores O'Riordan was born on 6 September 1971 in Ballybricken, County Limerick, the youngest of nine children, two of whom died in infancy. Her father, Terence Patrick "Terry" O'Riordan (1937–2011), worked as a farm labourer until a motorbike accident in 1968 left him brain damaged. Her mother, Eileen (née Greensmith), was a school caterer. O'Riordan was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, and was named by her mother in reference to the Lady of the Seven Dolours. From the age of eight, she was sexually abused for four years by an unnamed person whom she trusted.