Dolores O'riordan

‘I was so young when I got famous. I didn’t want to show people any fragilities or fears: I was trying to be this tough person that I felt was expected of me’

- Michelle Davies

She fronted one of the 90s biggest bands, but her life was tragically cut short last year. Now, in her honor, The Cranberries have released their final album with the late singer.

In 1980 it was a tradition in the town of Ballybricken, Ireland, for children to be taken to the local pub at weekends by their uncles and aunts. For nine-year-old Dolores O’Riordan, it was a treat not just because she got to drink lemonade and eat crisps, but because she was invited to sing for the punters. ‘When I’d go to the pub, they’d be like, “Oh, there’s the little O’Riordan” and “Would you sing this song?” They’d always ask me to sing a lot of country songs – Dolly Parton and things like that,’ she revealed. The locals obviously knew talent when they saw it – just 13 years later, O’Riordan had swapped the small-town pub for concert venues around the world as the lead singer of the alt-rock band The Cranberries. They sold an estimated 40 million records worldwide and achieved critical acclaim for their bestselling tracks Linger, Dreams, and Zombie.

Sadly, though, like too many of music’s great names, O’Riordan’s life was cut short last year when she was found dead in a London hotel room at the age of 46. A year on, her bandmates – guitarist Noel Hogan, his bass-playing brother Mike and drummer Fergal Lawler – have released a final album, In The End, featuring recordings O’Riordan made shortly before her unexpected death. ‘It’s like a little gift she left behind,’ Lawler recently said.