Reportedly, she had won an audition in 1990 to front a band known as The Cranberry Saw Us, which later changed its name to the famed The Cranberries.

Her unique singing style, which had an Irish drawl and also comprised nuanced yodelling techniques, led The Cranberries to popular acclaim in the 1990s. Some of the four-member band’s biggest hits include Linger, Zombie, as well as Dreams.

Linger, which is one of The Cranberries’ most popular songs, was composed by Dolores and the band’s guitarist Noel Hogan. The lyrics were based on Dolores’s heartbreak after breaking up with her first boyfriend, a soldier she fell in love with. The song was “about the way I reacted to infatuation”, she said. 

Singer Faye Wong covered Dreams in Cantonese, which was used in Wong Kar Wai movie Chungking Express (1994) and became a huge hit single on its own.

Besides releasing seven studio albums with The Cranberries, Dolores also had two solo albums titled Are You Listening? (2007) and No Baggage (2009). 

Dolores had a 20-year-old son, Taylor, and two daughters, Molly, 16, and Dakota, 12, with her ex-husband Don Burton, a former tour manager for the band Duran Duran.

Together with The Cranberries, Dolores rocked the Singapore Indoor Stadium in 2002, 2011 and 2012, for their Wake Up And Smell The Coffee, 20 Years and Roses tours. 

The Cranberries were due to tour North America and Europe last year (2017) to perform their latest album Something Else, but the tour was cut short because O’Riordan had been suffering from severe back problems.

In an Instagram post by the band (@thecranberriess) in June last year, they addressed the issue by saying: “There have been some comments suggesting that Dolores could perform if she sat while singing. Unfortunately it is not as simple as that.

Dolores’ back problem is in the mid to upper area of her spine and the breathing and diaphragmatic movements associated with singing put pressure on the muscles and nerves in that area and exacerbate the pain. Sitting does not give any relief and at times in her case it can actually worsen the pain.

“Please be assured that we would not have cancelled these shows if there was any way that Dolores could perform them.”

There was darkness in her life since she was a child. Between the ages of eight and 12, she was sexually abused by a family friend. She has said in interviews that the trauma from that experience led to her suffering from anorexia as a teenager.

In 2015, she revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but that she had struggled with the symptoms for years.

In 2014, Dolores began performing with musicians Ole Koretsky as well as Andy Rouke Of The Smiths as a trio act named D.A.R.K. She was working with them around the time of her death.