It's been covered, it's been censored, it's been criticised but it seems nothing will beat the original version of Fairytale of New York.
The melancholy yet rousing 1987 Christmas song, performed by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl, has been a firm favourite with Irish and international audiences for thirty-four years and it looks like its appeal is only growing with age.
A recent survey conducted by Applegreen found that the duet, co-written by Shane McGowan and bandmate Jem Finer, is still the nation’s favourite festive song with 41% of the vote.
The song rakes in around 250,000 euro each in royalties every year due to radio and TV airplay.
However, this year, there will be an extra cheque in the post for the song’s creators as an instrumental version was used in the ad for a popular UK supermarket.
Chris Rea’s irresistible tune, Driving Home for Christmas, came second with 28% of the vote. Respondents said that it perfectly captured that air of anticipation and cheer of the festive season.
We’d have to agree!
