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Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan ( oh-REER-dən; 6 September 1971 – 15 January 2018) was an Irish musician who was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the alternative rock band The Cranberries. One of the most recognizable voices in rock in the 1990s, she was known for her lilting mezzo-soprano voice, signature yodel, emphasized use of keening, and strong Limerick accent. O'Riordan was born in County Limerick, Ireland, to a Catholic working-class family. She began to perform as a soloist in her church choir before leaving secondary school to join the Cranberries in 1990. The band released the number-one Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993), No Need to Argue (1994), To the Faithful Departed (1996), and Bury the Hatchet (1999). The Cranberries released their fifth album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001), before going on a six-year hiatus starting in 2003. During this time, she released two solo studio albums: Are You Listening? (2007) and No Baggage (2009). The Cranberries reunited in 2009, released Roses (2012) and went on a world tour. Her other activities include appearing as a judge on RTÉ's The Voice of Ireland (2013–2014) and recording material with the trio D.A.R.K. (2014). The Cranberries' seventh album, Something Else (2017), was the last to be released during her lifetime. Throughout her life, O'Riordan had to overcome personal challenges. She struggled with depression and the pressure of her own success, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2015. O'Riordan died from drowning due to alcohol intoxication in January 2018. After her death, the Cranberries released the Grammy-nominated album In the End (2019), featuring her final vocal recordings, and subsequently disbanded. With the Cranberries, O'Riordan sold more than 40 million albums worldwide during her lifetime; that total increased to almost 50 million albums worldwide as of 2019, excluding her solo albums. In the US, she was awarded 14 Platinum album certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In Canada, she received 10 Platinum certifications. In the UK, she received 5 Platinum certifications. She was honoured with the Ivor Novello International Achievement award, and in the months following her death, she was named "The Top Female Artist of All Time" on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. Early life Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan was born on 6 September 1971 in Ballybricken in County Limerick, Ireland, 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. She grew up in the neighboring Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. O'Riordan was singing before she could talk. When she was five years of age, the principal of her school took her into the sixth class, sat her on the teacher's desk, and told her to sing for the twelve-year-old students in the class. She started with traditional Irish music and playing the Irish tin whistle when she went to school. When she was seven years old, her sister accidentally burned the house down; the rural community was able to raise funds to purchase the family a new homestead. O'Riordan's formative experiences were as a liturgical soloist in the choir in a local church and as a singer at school. From the age of eight, she was sexually abused for four years by a person whom she trusted. At the age of ten, she would sing in local pubs where her uncles took her. O'Riordan attended Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ school in Limerick. School principal Aedín Ní Bhriain said in the Limerick Post about O'Riordan's first day at Laurel Hill Coláiste at the age of twelve that she stood up in front of classmates and announced: "my name is Dolores O'Riordan and I'm going to be a rock star", then she stood on her chair and she sang "Tra la la la la, Triangles". According to her school friend Catherina Egan, she was "boisterous, wild, but lovely". She regularly played the spoons and the bodhrán. At the age of twelve, O'Riordan began piano lessons, and then later, achieved Grade 4 in Practical and Grade 8 in Theory. She sat every day at the piano in the main hall to play, then her classmates sat around her after having lunch to listen to her sing. At age seventeen, she learned to play the guitar and performed a solo gig in Laurel Hill Coláiste secondary school. That same year, she met her first boyfriend, Mike O'Mahoney. She described having a strict daily routine through her teenage years that consisted of going to piano lessons, going to church and doing homework. O'Riordan later admitted that she had neglected her school lessons in favour of writing music and songs, although at school she became head girl. Former principal Anne Mordan said in Nova about O'Riordan that she was a "delightful, unsophisticated, sensitive student, who enjoyed her time with us"; she described her as "a bright, kind, good-humoured girl, who loved her family, her friends, and had an easy relationship with all her teachers, both lay and FCJ sisters." During her six years at Laurel Hill Coláiste, O'Riordan won the Slógadh song contest almost every year, at several local events, and culminating in national singing competitions. In total she won 20 Slógadh medals. Around this time, O'Riordan divided the rest of her schedule between assisting her mother, learning the accordion from her dad, and part-time employment at clothing shops. Her mother, whom 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, O'Riordan clarified her reasons for leaving home: "At 18 I left home because I wanted to sing. My parents wanted me to go to college and things like that. I was really poor for a year-and-a-half; I remember actually being hungry, like I'd die for a bag of chips. That's when I joined the Cranberries". Career 1989–2003: Formation of the Cranberries, early success and stardom 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 mid-1990, on a Sunday afternoon, O'Riordan and Quinn came to 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 intimidatin.... Discover the Beechy Colclough popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Beechy Colclough books.