Fairytale of New York controversy explained and why lyrics to The Pogues’ hit Christmas song were changed

Hearing The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s iconic Christmas ditty Fairytale of New York will be poignant for fans this year following the death of Shane MacGowan.

The Pogues frontman’s death at the age of 65 was announced on November 30, 2023, following years of battling health issues. His funeral is taking place today (December 8) with Johnny Depp arriving in Nenagh, Tipperary to give a reading.

Often voted the nation’s favourite Yuletide song, it is the UK’s most-played Christmas single, and you can often find it getting everyone on their feet during annual parties.

It has been sold more than 1.5million times worldwide, and in 2022, the song was certified quintuple platinum in the UK for three million combined sales.

Like most pop music, it's of a time.

I became familiar with the song when it first came out in 1987. I was living in Boston at the time and WBCN played it frequently during that Christmas season. I don't expect the song to resonate with people first hearing it some 40 years later.

I've collected a couple dozen cover versions of this song since and also became a big fan of The Pogues music in general with "Rainy Night In SoHo" being their best.

Yeah. The Spotify list is all the junk that makes the American list. I don’t know why we torture ourselves with bad Christmas music, and so little of it, so even if it was good it loops around so fast by the end of one week everybody who works in a world with that music on hates it. It’s a weird thing.

RIP Shane MacGowan. A true original!

Singing with him on “Christmastime” is Kirsty MacColl
-— Her Tragic death (2000) in Mexico, killed by a wealthy boracho idiot there. Got run over by his power boat propeller while out swimming. She was mostly a folk singer.____Her father was Ewan MacColl. He was a well-known communist folk singer.

Wikipedia:
The powerboat involved in the collision was controlled by Guillermo González Nova, multimillionaire president of the Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain, who was on board with members of his family. The boat was owned by Carlos González Nova, brother of Guillermo and founder of Comercial Mexicana. An employee of Guillermo González Nova, boathand José Cen Yam, said he was in control of the boat at the time of the incident.[19][20] Eyewitnesses said that Cen Yam was not at the controls and that the boat was travelling much faster than the speed of one knot that González Nova said.

Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to two years and ten months in prison. He was allowed under Mexican law to pay a punitive fine of 1,034 pesos (about €63, £61 or US$90) in lieu of the prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay approximately US$2,150 in restitution to MacColl’s family, an amount based on his wages. People who said they spoke to Cen Yam after the killing said he received money for taking the blame.[20][21]

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