Zombie (The Cranberries song)

The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries killed more than 3,500 people, many from thousands of bomb attacks. One of the bombings happened on 20 March 1993, as two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Two children; Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, were killed in the attack. 56 people were injured. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his fragmentation-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life in a hospital as a result of head injuries. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town: writing the core chords on her acoustic guitar. and soon moving onto the verses. Given she was playing an acoustic guitar, the rest of the band initially followed along in, as guitarist Noel Hogan put it, "that kind of sweet indie pop thing" that the band featured in their other songs, before O'Riordan decided that it was not what she wanted, picked up an electric guitar and stated that "it needs to be heavy because it's angry". Drummer Fergal Lawler recalled that usually in that small room, "you're trying to keep it low because you don't want to deafen anybody", but O'Riordan played it loud and "we couldn't really hear the lyrics because she was singing through her guitar", and that the singer was adamant that she wanted more distortion pedals on the guitars and asked for more strength than usual in drumming. == Production and release ==

Soon after "Zombie" was completed, the band brought it onto their set list, with Lawler noting that the song was played live for a whole year before being recorded, and audiences responded with enthusiasm. The song was recorded and mixed at The Manor Studio in Oxford and at Townhouse Studios in London in 1994 with producer Stephen Street. They spent a long time working on getting the guitar settings right to give a suitably expansive sound, with O'Riordan noting "the sound came organically, because we were using our live instruments, we were plugging in a lot, and we started to mess around with feedback and distortion". Hogan stated that "Zombie" made the band realize "that you can actually be heavy and still have melody", marking a changing point in their composition style and live performances. as well as its parent album No Need to Argue the following month, with an accompanying music video for the song in heavy rotation on MTV, the Cranberries were catapulted to international stardom. Shortly after the song and video came out, ideological beliefs came rushing to the forefront of local newspapers, criticizing O'Riordan for "writing about the Troubles"; NPRs Andrew Limbong, speaking after O'Riordan's death in 2018, said "even though it was a political song, it wasn't necessarily politics she was interested in writing about". == Music and lyrics ==

"Zombie" has been characterised by commentators as alternative rock and grunge. O'Riordan later said that the song was not a concerted effort to ride the grunge movement, but she stated that "this wasn't grunge, but the timing was good", adding that, "We were just a different type of a band... and we had a lot of our own ideas". Hogan noted in a Rolling Stone interview that the Cranberries were beforehand accepted by "the same kind of [grunge] audience". At the time, O'Riordan received criticism for "Zombie"s "hard-hitting lyrics"; she nevertheless pointed out that the song was written from a humanitarian point of view. O'Riordan never revealed the origin of the "zombie" reference in the lyrics, a concept which admits a personal interpretation of its meaning. Sonia Saraiya, music and TV critic from Miami Herald and Chicago Tribune, had a different view, saying that the Zombie is not the dead children, but "the dead children that populate your mind; the dead bodies you've seen in the images that you can't forget". Singing voice O'Riordan's vocals were noted as reminiscent of the sean-nós singing style, when she does the sharp break from chest register to head register in the second syllable of the word Zom-bie, the lilting vocables, and sung in her thick Irish accent. Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times described O'Riordan "pushing her voice to a jagged extreme to embody the pain", with a "desperate, yodeling vocal that conjures some ancient emotion". Far Out Magazine commented that her vocal performance was "guttural, pleading, captivating and utterly unique, O'Riordan begs for humanity the only way she knew how". Saraiya wrote that her voice "often seemed bigger than her petite frame", and also commented that the chorus "practically grunted out of her otherwise bell-like voice with a guttural vowel sound". {{Cquote|O'Riordan's voice is just in a league all its own. She makes no effort to hide her accent. In fact, it adds a richness and character to her voice. O'Riordan lays it all out on the table. Beautifully. Uncompromising and unrelenting. O'Riordan sinks her hooks into you and holds you hostage with her breathtaking vocal onslaught. == Critical reception ==

Praise Tedium's editor Ernie Smith said, "O'Riordan wrote it in a moment of anger and passion", and called the song "one of the defining songs of the alternative rock era". In a different perspective, Rebecca Black of the Belfast Telegraph described "Zombie" as an "outraged response to the Warrington bombs", while music reporter Mark Savage wrote that "her pain was real", describing it as "a visceral response to the death of two children". The Rough Guide to Rock identified the album No Need to Argue as "more of the same" as the Cranberries' debut album, except for the song "Zombie", which had an "angry grunge" sound and "aggressive" lyrics. Music critic Evelyn McDonnell allowed that O'Riordan had a "certain naivety to her and also a real toughness". Music & Media stated that it "combines moody soundscapes with some grunge-y guitar attacks that together make an arresting number". Mark Morris from Select wrote in his review of the album, "The surprise is 'Zombie', a Sinéad-like tantrum of crunchy guitars and confused lyrics about guns and bombs." Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "I like "Zombie" because its crunching, troubled guitar fuzz was the loudest thing on MTV during the last days of '94. Just ask Bono, my Irish Setter. He's still wailing." Josh Jones of Open Culture, described the "Gen X heyday"s song, as "O'Riordan's stadium-size hit ... and its beautifully pained laments and pointedly unsubtle yelps and wails—a stunning expression of mourning that reverberates still some 25 years later". Martin Aston of Music Week wrote: "Having broken the UK on the back of their US success, the Cranberries continue to use their pop acumen to fashion wonderful, wistful pop nuggets. 'Zombie' is a little heavier and less user-friendly than 'Linger' and 'Dreams', but no less sublime for it." In 2018, Billboard and Stereogum ranked the song number three and number two, respectively, on their lists of the top ten Cranberries songs. On 16 January 2018, following O'Riordan's death, Colin Parry, father of IRA victim Tim Parry, thanked O'Riordan for the "both majestic and also very real lyrics". Criticism Paul Brannigan of Louder writes, "Not everyone, however, was impressed by [O'Riordan's] credentials for the role of commentator on one of the most complex conflicts of the modern era." Upon the song's release, David Stubbs from Melody Maker said, "'Zombie' doesn't make a born-again fan of me, with its lethargic, samey, grungy riff lurching predictably towards anthem status. But I like Dolores O' Riordan's vocal, like Dana on heroin, all tattered, snarling and trembling at her wits' end." At the same time, Northern Irish band Schtum told Melody Maker, "She's from Limerick, what the fuck would she know? You're talking about the last 25 years of a much bigger and wider problem that has gone on for hundreds of years". Female pop-punk music duo Shampoo reviewed the song for Smash Hits, giving it two out of five. Accolades On 23 November 1995, the Cranberries won the Best Song Award for "Zombie" at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. In November 2022, the song was voted as the greatest Irish hit of all time by RTÉ 2fm listeners in compiling the ultimate Irish playlist for a television special shown on RTÉ One. As a sporting anthem Following the death of O'Riordan in 2018, the hurling team from her home county of Limerick adopted "Zombie" as their anthem during their successful run to the All-Ireland Championship. It soon became a rugby anthem as well; Limerick-based Munster initially played it in tribute to O'Riordan, and crowd reaction led to it becoming a post-match staple. The song was re-popularised in 2023 after it was played after Ireland games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was picked up by fans of the Irish team, with videos of fans singing the song in chorus accumulating hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This offended Irish nationalists, who identified it as an "anti-IRA" anthem, and said that the lyrics failed to consider their experience during the Troubles. Irish political leaders supported the use of the song as a rugby anthem. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described it as "a song that we can all sing comfortably. It’s an anti-terrorism song. It’s not a nationalist or unionist song." SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wrote that "'Zombie' is an anti-war song written after the IRA killed 2 children in Warrington", adding that criticism of the IRA is not an endorsement of "British brutality", writing "Most of us opposed both". "Zombie" was also the walkout music for mixed martial artist Jung Chan-sung, known as 'The Korean Zombie', throughout his time in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. == Commercial performance ==

"Zombie" topped the charts in many countries. In 1994, "Zombie" was "the most played song ever on alternative radio in the history of America", as mentioned in the Los Angeles Times and in Kenneth L. Campbell's book, ''Ireland's History – Prehistory to the Present''. Junkee journalist Jules LeFevre recalled that Australian audiences were "particularly gripped by the song", with Triple J listeners voting for "Zombie" as No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1994 chart, establishing for the first time ever that a female vocalist won the Triple J Hottest 100. The single peaked at No. 1 and spent twenty eight weeks on the Official German Charts. On 25 December 1994, the single debuted at No. 27 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40, and climbed to No. 2, where it stayed for eight weeks. "Zombie" debuted on the French SNEP Top 100 at No. 4 on 25 February 1995. The following week, the single moved to No. 1; it spent nine consecutive weeks at the top and a total of forty-two weeks on the singles chart. The song reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2023, the song saw a sales surge in the UK and Ireland during the 2023 Rugby World Cup; the song was played on speakers after every time the Irish team scored. "Zombie" peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart during this time. == Music video ==

Background and production "Zombie" was released with a music video in October 1994. The video was directed by Samuel Bayer, through company HSI Productions. The music video was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the heart of the Troubles with real footage, and in Dublin. O'Riordan remembered Bayer telling her "how tense it was and how he was blown away by the whole thing. He got footage of the kids jumping from one building to another, and he got a lot of footage of the army. He was a very good director". O'Riordan also wanted to add images with "an abstract message", saying it would represent "the beauty that we see in the world or that we care to open our eyes to" while the black and white footage of Belfast "symbolize the pain that’s there and we close our eyes to". She suggested herself painted gold, and Bayer added children painted silver and a cross that "symbolized Christ suffering and dying, and all the pain that was caused to him". This was filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles. It was also banned by the RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. Instead, both the BBC and the RTÉ opted to broadcast an edited version focusing on footage of the band in a live performance, a version that the Cranberries essentially disowned. Despite their efforts to maintain the original video "out of view from the public", some of the initial footage prevailed, with scenes of children holding guns. Reception and accolades "Zombie" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA in December 1994. The video gained a nomination for Best Alternative Video at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. Writer Josh Jones commented that the video "offers a classic collection of 90s stylistic quirks, from Derek Jarman–inspired setpieces to the use of black and white and earnest political messaging". He added, "[f]or us old folks, it's an almost pure hit of nostalgia, and for the young, a nearly perfect specimen of the decade's rock aesthetics". == Live performances ==

A version of "Zombie" was already played one year before the release of No Need to Argue, on the band's first European tour with Hothouse Flowers, after the release of ''Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?''. Towards the end of "Zombie", O'Riordan dedicated the song to others, like the victims of ethnic cleansing, The Cranberries kept "Zombie" in their concert setlists throughout their career. On 14 February 1995, the band recorded a nine-song set including "Zombie", for MTV Unplugged, accompanied by Electra Strings, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City. On 25 February 1995, the Cranberries played the song on their appearance on the US show Saturday Night Live, in a slow tempo performance that British author Dave Thompson called "one of the most powerful performances that the show has ever seen". The episode came a week after record producer Denny Cordell, an early mentor to the Cranberries, had died. Writer Ed Power wrote that the performance "has the rawness of early grief", while Rolling Stone would later declare it "one of the greatest SNL turns". The song appeared on the set list of their 2017 tour, featuring the Irish Chamber Orchestra's string quartet. == Censorship ==

In March 2003, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq War, the British Government and the Independent Television Commission issued a statement saying ITC's Programme Code would temporarily remove from broadcast songs and music videos featuring "sensitive material", including "Zombie". Numerous media groups complied with the decision to avoid "offending public feeling", along with MTV Europe. Since it violated the ITC guidelines, "Zombie" was placed on a blacklist of songs, targeting its official music video. The censorship was lifted once the war had ended. In August 2006, CBS censored a performance of "Zombie" by Rock Star: Supernova contestant Dilana, as a result of the lyrics and deleted all mentions of tanks, bombs and guns. Although CBS declined to comment, an employee claimed that it was "worried that the song might be seen as an anti-Iraq War statement". == Formats and track listings ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts == Certifications and sales ==

The American heavy metal band Bad Wolves recorded a cover of "Zombie" in 2017 while they were working on their debut album Disobey. The band's singer Tommy Vext slightly altered the lyrics, inserting a reference to drones and replacing "since 1916" with "in 2018" to show that times haven't changed. Upon recording, the band were unsure regarding adding it to the album, with Vext declaring "The song is a masterpiece and a massive hit. Some art is sacred—you become afraid to do a rendition of it". On 21 December 2017, Vext met Dan Waite—the Internal managing director of Bad Wolves' record label Eleven Seven Label Group-Europe and a long-time close friend of O'Riordan—backstage at London's Wembley Arena at a heavy metal concert. On Christmas Eve 2017, Waite sent a text message to Vext that said O'Riordan had offered to "sing on it". On 15 January 2018, at 1:12 am GMT at her Mayfair hotel in London, O'Riordan left a voice message to Waite, where she expressed her thoughts, describing the cover as "awesome". She also invited Waite to come in the studio, slated for later that morning, and listen to the results of her vocals recording. O'Riordan was later found unresponsive in the hotel bathroom and confirmed dead at 09:16 am. Following her death, Bad Wolves said, Bad Wolves released the cover on 18 January 2018. The cover topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in May 2018 for three weeks and peaked at No. 54 on the Hot 100. In June 2018, at a concert in New York City, Bad Wolves donated $250,000 to O'Riordan's children. The idea of making a donation was set up by Allen Kovac, Eleven Seven Label Group founder, and former manager of The Cranberries. In an interview, bassist Kyle Konkiel shared his thoughts on the new cover's sound: Music video The song's music video was directed by Wayne Isham. It begins with text discussing the cover's background and the passing of O'Riordan. The video then cuts to shots of the band performing the song in a black room, wearing black clothing and playing black instruments interspersed with close-up scenes of a woman (played by Ava Capra) being covered in gold paint to resemble O'Riordan in the original video. The woman also smears gold paint on a glass pane between herself and Vext, and after the guitar solo, she etches "1-15-18", the date of O'Riordan's death, into the paint. The video ends with a quote by Vext, "Her lyrics, confronting the collateral damage of political unrest, capture the same sentiment we wanted to express a quarter-century later. That is a testament to the kind of enduring artist Dolores was, and will remain forever." Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications and sales ==Other notable covers==

• In late 1994, a cover version by Spanish mákina group Ororo was released in conjunction with the original version. This version reached No. 1 in Spain and No. 16 in Austria. • In 1995, a Eurodance cover version by Italian quartet A.D.A.M. featuring Amy reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart, No. 65 in Australia, No. 20 in France, No. 7 in Ireland, No. 9 in Italy, and No. 35 in Belgium. • In 2011, Christina Parie covered the song on The X Factor Australia. After her performance, the song re-entered the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart at No. 69. • In 2017, Dutch hardstyle DJ Ran-D released a cover of the song on Armada Records which was certified gold in the Netherlands in 2019. • In February 2018, the pop rock band Dreamers released a cover of the song. • On 16 January 2019, to mark the first anniversary of O'Riordan's death, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa released a cover song through his punk-inspired band named 93Punx. On 27 April 2020, one week after The Cranberries music video reached one billion views on YouTube, 93Punx released their music video including their own live footage and interspersed with scenes from the original video. • On 18 October 2020, American singer Miley Cyrus performed a cover of the song at NIVA Save Our Stages at Whisky a Go Go, a fundraiser concert streamed live on YouTube. Cyrus later on released her live cover to digital and streaming platforms and announced that the track would be one of the two (the latter being another viral take at Blondie's "Heart of Glass") covers that would be a part of her seventh full-studio album Plastic Hearts. The Cranberries expressed approval at Cyrus's version, posting on their official Twitter page that it was "one of the finest covers of the song that we've heard." and stated the performance was inspired by her feeling like it was "really timely, even though it was a cover and maybe an older song, it just felt like it was super right now", adding that the lyrics "just really resonated" with her. while also charting at No. 193 in France. • In 2023, DJs and producers Illenium, Excision and Wooli made a remix of "Zombie" featuring vocals by Valerie Broussard. It reached No. 28 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart. • In 2024, Bambie Thug released a cover of "Zombie" as promotion for their Eurovision Song Contest 2024 performance, claiming the song was relevant to protest the Gaza war. • In August 2025, a orchestral instrumental was used in the second season episode "If These Woes Could Talk" of the Netflix series, Wednesday, and was later released shortly after as part of the first half of the season's soundtrack. Later that month a cover by Bella Poarch was released in association with the series. Both version were later included on the series' official season two soundtrack. ==See also==