It takes a brave man to do a cover version of a classic like Fairytale of New York, especially as it’s a duet and you have to do it on your own. But Ed Sheeran has never been one to shirk a challenge.
The superstar singer has always loved the original version by the Pogues with Shane MacGowan and Kirstie MacColl on vocals.
No one could better that, but Ed thought that he could at least do it differently. His version got the thumbs up from MacGowan.
Victoria Mary Clarke, the wife of the Pogues legend said: “Shane loves when people cover his material and Ed’s version is really good. He loves it.
“I don’t understand a lot of the criticism. Some people were even suggesting Ed shouldn’t have covered it because he’s English, well, Shane was actually born in England!
“We love Ed, in fact he’s more than welcome to call around while he’s over in Dublin. We’d love to see him for a sing-song.”
What really matters, though, is what the public think. Here’s what some of our readers had to say.
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling