‘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.
The song was inspired by the IRA bombing in Warrington, Cheshire, England on March 20, 1993. Two children, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, were killed. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) is a militant group that was determined to remove British troops from Northern Ireland. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town: “There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that's why there's that line in the song, 'A child is slowly taken'. [ ... ] We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension.”
Knowing of the song's potential, the Cranberries wanted "Zombie" to be lead single in advance of the album No Need to Argue. Former manager Allen Kovac stated that Island Records urged them not to release the "politically urgent" song as a single, and that O'Riordan had ripped up a $1-million cheque the label offered her to work on another song. "Dolores was a very small, fragile person, but very opinionated," said Kovac. "Her belief was that she was an international artist and she wanted to break the rest of the world, and 'Zombie' was part of that evolution. She felt the need to expand beyond 'I love you, you love me' and write about what was happening in Ireland at the time", he said. Island Records and management also claimed that the song was "too controversial, you might not get played on the radio". Hogan added that the label were not expecting a lead single sounding different from the band's output "instead of coming out with another ‘Linger’ or ‘Dreams’". Lawler recalled arguing to the record label that during the year the band had played "Zombie" in concert, "for a new song that the audience hadn't heard before, they really reacted to it", which was "a sign that it's a catchy song. People like it. It has to work.” Over time, "we pushed and pushed and eventually they decided to release it", he said. By the time the single for ‘Zombie’ was released on 19 September 1994, with an accompanying music video for the song in heavy rotation on MTV, the Cranberries were catapulted to international stardom.
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.
Label – Island
Songwriter – Dolores O'Riordan
Producer – Stephen Street
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
[Pre-Chorus]
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fightin'
With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are cryin'
[Chorus]
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie, oh
[Post-Chorus]
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
[Verse 2]
Another mother's breakin'
Heart is takin' over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
[Pre-Chorus]
It's the same old theme, since 1916
In your head, in your head, they're still fightin'
With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are dyin'
[Chorus]
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, eh-eh-oh, ra-ra
[Instrumental Outro]