The censored version to be played this Christmas will exclude the words ‘slut’ and ‘faggot’. BBC Radio 1 hosts have stated they will be removing these two words in an effort to not offend members of the LGBTQ+ community and younger audiences who might be particularly sensitive to offensive language towards women and especially sexuality.

https://t.co/w9iAFQSvDX

— The Pogues (@poguesofficial) November 19, 2020

Fairytale of New York was released November 23rd, 1987 and featured on The Pogues’ album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. It’s original release only made it #2 on the UK Christmas hits, however, since then it has reached triple platinum in sales. In 2019 it was awarded the title of The Most Played Christmas Song in the UK of the 21st Century.

The beginning of the controversy surrounding this Irish Christmas folk-song began in 2007 when BBC Radio 1 released an edited version in an attempt to avoid any offence taken by listeners. The Pogues stated it was amusing and ridiculous to them. After mass outrage, BBC Radio 1 reversed its position and continued to play the original version through the holiday season.

‘Morning https://t.co/xnoWEhjOl1

— The Pogues (@poguesofficial) November 19, 2020

2018 saw a much wider call to remove the offensive language from the track, or remove it from the radio-stations all together, however, the original version continued to dominate radio plays. MacGowan from the band defended the words once and for all in a statement on The Tonight Show, saying, “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! […]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 2019 there was still no censorship on the song on the Christmas radios and mixed reactions and opinions on whether it should be allowed on air was still broadly up for debate. Despite the dispute, the song received its most streams and downloads last year then ever before.

Even now in 2020 there continues to be split beliefs among all generations and communities throughout the UK on whether to censor Fairytale of New York. BBC Radio 1 has made headlines with the call to censor the iconic holiday hit from The Guardian to The Gay Times to CNN and all BBC radios have now been instructed to make the best decision based on their audiences.

Frontman and vocalist Olly Alexander featured an accompanying message to their fans saying that his intentions were to “celebrate all different kinds of sexuality and queer identities”.

The open letter consisted of context to the video, discussing the different types of sexualities and identities that deserve as much recognition as heterosexual romance in music videos.

Most of the pop videos I’ve seen that have any male and female interaction are usually centred around a romance, and that’s great, I am all for romance, but let’s face it there are a lot of other sexualities and identities that are well deserving of some shiny pop video love. I’ve been wanting to make a video with some of my queer family for a long time and ‘Desire’ felt like the right time to do it… Pop music has a pretty good track record of embracing queer culture, it’s been a safe place for some of our most visible queer icons, we have more out and open non-straight stars than ever before.

The music video is an artistic piece featuring scenes of Alexander getting intimate and close up with members of the same sex with eye-capturing shots of the lead singer and Tove Lo performing the track.

The message he attached to the video provided a powerful stance and inspiring statement towards the LGBT community, read the rest of the message down below:

“I love pop (obviously) so, why is it that in 2016, a pop video featuring people expressing their sexuality who aren’t cis-gendered or heterosexual, feel at all unusual or progressive? Well for a lot of people, it doesn’t- they live and think outside of the societal binary most of us are used to, but for a lot of other people, myself included, it does. It shouldn’t, but it does.”

“So yeah, gay people have sex, and it’s not just gay people, it’s all kinds of people! All these non-straight people, they’re out there, having sex! Sex, between two consenting adults, can be a healthy, positive, safe and enjoyable thing!”

“As a teenager I was inspired by stars who I felt were doing just that,” the singer continues. “They were almost exclusively women; Madonna, Destiny’s Child, Alanis Morissette, Britney and Whitney – they asserted or acknowledged their sexuality in varying and different ways and to me they were ways that felt powerful… Women in pop music are expected to be sexy, most of the time they don’t have any choice – I have the privilege of choice. I chose to make this video about sex, to portray myself as a sexual character. I choose this because I do not want to hide or limit my sexuality, I want to make videos and songs and art that celebrate all different kinds of sexuality and queer identities.”

Watch the new music video here: