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Dolores O'Riordan music biography continued...

Born September 6, 1971 in County Limerick, O'Riordan responded to a newspaper advertisement for a vocalist and was hired by the band The Cranberries in 1990. The group sent demos of their songs "Linger" and "Dreams" to the record studios while they were still in their late teens and after a bidding war, eventually signed with Island Records and issued their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, in Spring 1993. Behind the single, "Linger," the album went double platinum. O'Riordan married the band's tour manager, Don Burton, in a much-publicized ceremony in July 1994. The marriage, as well as the group's videos, emphasized the singer as the focal point of the band. O'Riordan's position in the group continued to rise with the fall release of the group's second album, No Need to Argue. With the mega O'Riordan-fronted hits "Zombie" and "Ode to My Family," the album went triple platinum. During the tour for No Need to Argue, rumors began to circulate that O'Riordan was going to leave the band to pursue a solo career, all of which the band categorically denied. Their 1996 follow-up album, To the Faithful Departed, was somewhat of a commercial disappointment, and the rumors of O'Riordan leaving the band continued. The Cranberries would put out two more albums—1999's Bury the Hatchet-- and a greatest hits compilation, before officially calling it quits, and giving O'Riordan the freedom to explore a solo career.



In 2004 O'Riordan appeared with the Italian artist Zucchero on the album Zu & Co., with the song "Pure Love". Then, in May 2007 she released her first album Are You Listening," behind the singles "Ordinary Day" and "When We Were Listening." Her second album, No Baggage, featuring eleven tracks, was released in August 2009, and fulfilled the promise that so many had seen in O'Riordan from the day she auditioned for the Cranberries.