Irish singer-songwriter Cat Dowling, who first came to prominence as the frontwoman of Dublin band Alphastates, has died aged 54.<\/p>\n
Dowling, who died on Friday, 7 August, is survived by her three children. <\/p>\n
Kilkenny-born and based in Dublin, Dowling had a music career spanning more than two decades, initially with Alphastates and later as a solo artist.<\/p>\n
Dowling had previously fronted Babelfish, which evolved into Alphastates. The band released their debut album, Made From Sand, in 2004.<\/p>\n
They returned with their second album, Human Nature, in 2009, before the band split the following year.<\/p>\n
Dowling subsequently embarked on a solo career, releasing her debut album, The Believer, in 2013.<\/p>\n
Songs from the album went on to reach audiences beyond Ireland. The title track featured in television series Banshee and Witches of East End, while Somebody Else was used in the Irish film My Name Is Emily.<\/p>\n
Dowling released her second solo album, Animals, in November 2021 through Irish independent label FIFA Records.<\/p>\n
The 11-track album included the singles Trouble, Freedom and its title track, and was produced by Gerry Horan, with Dowling as co-producer.<\/p>\n
In March 2025, she released a version of The Pogues’ A Rainy Night in Soho. Her recording was chosen to soundtrack the Department of Foreign Affairs\u2019 St Patrick\u2019s Day campaign celebrating Irish people making a contribution to communities around the world.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Dowling performed at the Dublin launch of Rock Against Homelessness in aid of Focus Ireland.<\/p>\n
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Fellow musicians including Paddy Casey, Jerry Fish and The Stunning were among those paying tribute to Dowling following her death.<\/p>\n
Casey offered his condolences to her loved ones, writing: “All my best to her family and friends.”<\/p>\n
Jerry Fish described Dowling as “a warrior for LOVE” and “a gentle soul, humble and generous to a fault”.<\/p>\n
“We will miss her Punk heart and rasping angel of a voice,” he said, adding: “Cat Dowling was one of a kind.”<\/p>\n
The Stunning said they were “so saddened” by her death, describing Dowling as “a true original”.<\/p>\n
A social media post from Dublin music venue Whelan\u2019s said it had been “honoured” to have Dowling perform there over the years, both with Alphastates and as a solo artist.<\/p>\n
“Another great talent lost from Dublin\u2019s music family,” the venue added.<\/p>\n
In an article on the magazine’s website Hot Press editor Niall Stokes remembered Dowling as “a wonderful singer and front-woman” and “a hugely original musician”.<\/p>\n
“She was a lovely person, and a hugely original musician. She will be greatly missed,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish singer-songwriter Cat Dowling, who first came to prominence as the frontwoman of Dublin band Alphastates, has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-587830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}