Dolores O'Riordan

Dolores O’Riordan is an established Irish female singer and song-writer who is mostly known as the front lady of the celebrated band The Cranberries. Although this group has never been officially dissolved, there are no news on their concert or studio activities. Meanwhile, Dolores made her first steps as a solo artist proving she could reach much without being a part of a musical ensemble. Dolores Mary Eileen O’Riordan Burton was born on September 6, 1971 in the suburbs of Limerick, Ireland. She was the youngest of the seven children in the family. She was introduced to the music art in a very classical fashion as she became a member of the church choir at a very tender age. Singing was not the only thing she mastered as the girl learned to play piano, flute, guitar and mandolin since she was five years old. It is amazing how hard-working Dolores has always been when it came to studying. Apart from music, she revealed outstanding skills in mastering foreign languages. Among them, she speaks fluently English, Gaelic and French. However, further education was not a primary goal for Dolores when she finished school. In 1900 she joined the rows of the emerging group under the name The Cranberry Saw Us.

In a short while, this was reduced to The Cranberries, while O’Riordan became the leader of the band on the stage as well as in public. Her unique, easily recognizable voice along with the outstanding writing talent brought this Irish ensemble a long time fame and commercial success. In 2003, The Cranberries announced the beginning of the break that did not seem to end. Meanwhile, Dolores decided to launch her solo career and started it with writing songs for the soundtracks to motion pictures. One of them, Ave Maria, was picked up for the well-known movie The Passion Of The Christ (2004). She also teamed up with several other performers to complete a number of projects. In the frames of these activities, she recorded the song Mirror Lover (2004) for the German electronic dance formation Jam & Spoon and then united her efforts with the celebrated Italian artist Zucchero to make up a composition called Pure Love (2004).

In the spring of 2007, Dolores O’Riordan finally presented her debut long player, Are You Listening?, preceded by the release of the single Ordinary Day. The famous singer dedicated this composition to her daughter. The album featured twelve songs selected by Dolores out of the thirty two composition that she had written apart from The Cranberries since 2003 to 2007. Working on this record, O’Riordan executed the duties of song-writer, performer and co-producer. This was a rock-music based material produced with the use of classic rock instruments: guitars, bass and drums. Dolores continued writing music for the movies as she co-wrote Angels Go To Heaven (2004) for the thriller Evilenko, and The Butterfly, Secrets Of Love for Secrets Of Love (2007). In 2006, Dolores played her debut part on the screen as she appeared in the film Click singing her song Linger. In August 2009, the singer presented her second solo album called No Baggage.