If you are tired of Christmas and Christmas music, this is your song. Fairytale Of New York is the Christmas classic written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and recorded by the folk-punk group The Pogueswhich also featured the participation of the singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColla British singer well known in the United Kingdom.
Composed in 1987 as part of the album If I Should Fall from Grace with God by the Anglo-Irish rock band, the song is an Irish folk-style ballad. The legendary Pogues musician wrote Fairytale of New York to sing it as a duet with the also deceased MacColl (1959-2000), with whom he had an argument as a couple, after getting drunk and passing by a police station in the Big Apple.
“You’re a bum. You’re a punk.”she tells him. “You’re an old horse-ridden whore, lying there almost dead with the syringe in the bed.”he answers.
Thus, the lyrics tell the story of this Irish couple who emigrate to the United States with the hope of succeeding as artists in New York. The song, takes place on Christmas Eve and with the title “New York Fairy Tale”, one would expect a happy ending, however, the two end up destitute and unable to fulfill their dreams.
Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan sing a duet on ‘Fairytale of New York’, composed in 1987. / Tim Roney
Although the single has never managed to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, it has proven to be very popular among both music critics and the public. The year of its launch, it managed to place itself in second position on the aforementioned list. That year, 1987, he reached first place Always on My Mindby Pet Shop Boys.
To date, the song has reached the UK Top 20 on 19 separate occasions since its original release in the 1980s, including every year in December since 2005, following the rise of downloads.
In 2013, it became the 126th single to achieve sell over a million copies in the UK. Four years later, in 2017, it had sold 1.2 million copies. In December 2022, the song was certified quintuple platinum in the United Kingdom for 3 million combined sales (streaming). Besides, Fairytale of New York is the most played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK.
Irish punk poet dies
On November 30, Shane MacGowan passed away at the age of 65. Days later, on December 8, Thousands of people said goodbye to MacGowan in the streets of Dublin as the funeral procession of Ireland’s last great poet and musician passes by. The artist’s coffin, aboard a horse carriage and covered with the Irish tricolor flag, traveled through the capital amid cheers, toasts of whiskey and singing of some of his most emblematic songs.
Shane MacGowan during a performance in Amsterdam, 1995. / Frans Schellekens
McGowan rose to fame as the leader of The Pogues, with whom he enjoyed both musical successes and excesses of alcohol and drugs, on endless tours that ended up taking their toll on him. MacGowan’s time with The Pogues was tumultuous and in fact, In 1991 he was removed from the band due to his partying and erratic behavior.although it returned in 2001 and until 2014, when the group broke up.
Shane MacGowan in 1984. / Steve Rapport
His health, however, began to seriously deteriorate around 2010 and from then on was forced to leave the stageuntil being confined to a wheelchair in recent years.
In 2018, Ireland paid him a well-deserved tribute on his 60th birthday, with a legendary concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin in which, among others, Bono (U2), SinĂ©ad O’Connor, Nick Cave and Glen Hansard participated.
