“Fairytale of New York,” the classic Christmas song from The Pogues, has returned to the top of the Spotify charts in Ireland in the wake of Shane MacGowan’s death on November 30.
“Fairytale” jumped from #16 to #2 on Ireland’s Spotify charts between November 29 and November 30, the day MacGowan passed away.
The Irish Christmas classic continued to surge, claiming the number one spot on Spotify in Ireland on both Friday, December 1 and Saturday, December 2.
On Sunday, December 3, the song dipped down slightly to the third position on the Irish charts.
In the UK, “Fairytale” saw a similar jump between November 29 and November 30, rising from #23 to #6 on the Spotify charts.
In the US, however, the classic Irish song has yet to enter the top 200 daily songs on Spotify since MacGowan's death.
Elsewhere, "Fairytale of New York" has climbed 15 spots to #22 for the week of November 30 - December 6 on Ireland’s Top 50 biggest songs of the week, compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and audio streams.
"Fairytale of New York," written by MacGowan and Pogues bandmate Jem Finer, was originally released as a single in November 1987 and later featured on the Pogues' 1988 album "If I Should Fall from Grace with God."
While the song, which features Kirsty MacColl on vocals, topped the Irish charts in 1987, it has never reached number one on the UK charts where it peaked at number two.
In the wake of her husband's death, Victoria Mary Clarke told BBC Radio One on Saturday that she would like to see "Fairytale" be this year's number one Christmas song.
"It would be nice, wouldn’t it?" she said.
"It should be the Christmas number one, it absolutely should.
"I am very much in favor of that.”
Clarke compared the song to her own marriage to MacGowan: "It's not [the romance that's] gone wrong - in the song, they still love each other," she said.
"But life has gone wrong. I think that's what's probably a little bit similar to our story.
"We were both very much affected by his addiction, but you can still love, even when you're in that situation. And you can be very desperately unhappy as well as love."
"Fairytale of New York" has courted controversy for its use of the word "faggot," but MacGowan defended his lyrics, saying in 2019: "The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character.
"She is not supposed to be a nice person or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate."
MacGowan, 65, died at home in the early hours of November 30 after a long battle with illness. His funeral is due to be held this Friday, December 8.
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