Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan
dies suddenly aged 46
AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan has died suddenly at the age of 46, her publicist has confirmed.
The Irish musician, originally from Limerick, led the band to international success in the 90s with singles including Linger and Zombie.
A statement from her publicist said: "The lead singer with the Irish band The Cranberries was in London for a short recording session.
"No further details are available at this time."
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the police were called to a hotel in Park Lane at 09:05 GMT on Monday, where "a woman in her mid-40s" was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death is, at this stage, unexplained.
Her current band mates in The Cranberries - Noel Hogan, Fergal Lawler, and Mike Hogan - paid tribute to the lead singer on social media.
The message said: "She was an extraordinary talent and we feel very privileged to have been part of her life from 1989."
The Cranberries shot to international fame with their 1993 debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? and went on to sell over 40 million records worldwide.
In 2017 The Cranberries announced a tour including dates in Europe, the UK, and the US.
However, in May - shortly into the European tour - the group had to cancel the remainder of the European dates as a result of O'Riordan's health issues.
The official Cranberries website cited "medical reasons associated with a back problem" preventing singer Dolores O'Riordan from performing.
But just before Christmas O'Riordan had posted on Facebook saying she was "feeling good" and had done her "first bit of gigging in months", leading fans to believe she would soon be performing again.
In an interview in 2013 she said that she had been abused as a child, which led to her developing an eating disorder, and eventually she suffered a breakdown.
She described her family, especially her children, as her "salvation".
Irish president Michael D Higgins called her death "a big loss", and added O'Riordan's work with The Cranberries "had an immense influence on rock and pop music in Ireland and internationally".
Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said she was probably "Limerick's greatest ever rock star", and that her band "captured all of the angst that came with your teenage years".
A book of condolence will be opened in her home town of Limerick on Tuesday, at the city council's headquarters.
O'Riordan, the youngest of seven children, had written her own songs since she was 12.
She joined the band while still in her teens, after spotting an advert for a female singer for rock band The Cranberry Saw Us.
Later changed to The Cranberries, the band's most successful tracks include Linger (1993), Zombie (1994) - a protest song about bombings that took place in relation to the conflict in Northern Ireland - as well as No Need To Argue (1994) and To the Faithful Departed (1996).
O'Riordan briefly pursued a solo career after the band split in 2003, before The Cranberries reunited in 2009.
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