Cranberries - Zombie

About "Zombie"

"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries. It was written by the lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was released on 19 September 1994 by Island Records as the lead single from the Cranberries' second studio album, No Need to Argue (1994). Critics have described "Zombie" as "a masterpiece of alternative rock", with grunge-style distorted guitar and shouted vocals uncharacteristic of the band's other work.

While Island feared releasing a politically charged song as a single, "Zombie" reached No. 1 on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and Iceland. Although it did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, it reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. Listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J voted it No. 1 on the 1994 Triple J Hottest 100 chart, and it won the Best Song Award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. The music video was directed by Samuel Bayer, and featured O'Riordan singing while painted gold and footage of war-torn Belfast. In April 2020, it became the first song by an Irish group to surpass one billion views on YouTube.

The Cranberries noted that "Zombie" drew strong responses from audiences. After O'Riordan's death in 2018, it became an Irish stadium anthem, first for the teams from the Cranberries' hometown of Limerick, and later for the Ireland national rugby union team starting in the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The band recorded acoustic, stripped-down versions on MTV Unplugged and the 2017 album Something Else. "Zombie" has been covered by numerous artists; O'Riordan had planned to contribute vocals to a version by the American band Bad Wolves, which was released days after her death.