The Pogues frontman has responded to the criticism of the iconic hit.
The lead singer of The Pogues, has defended the use of controversial lyrics in the cult Christmas hit 'Fairytale of New York'.
MacGowan has stated that the line, "You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy f****t", sung in the second verse by Kirsty MacColl, is representative of the imperfect character she is portraying in the song.
However, the singer also said he's fine with the lyrics being censored, explaining that "if people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don’t want to get into an argument."
In a statement released to Virgin Media Television’s The Tonight Show, the 60-year-old MacGowan said of his lyrics:
"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.
"Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.
"If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don’t want to get into an argument."
Music coordinator of iRadio, Michaela Hayes has confirmed that iRadio will play original version of the song across the Christmas period.
