Kirsty MacColl, the British singer whose career took off in the 70s and went on to be a known name in the 80s and 90s suffered a tragic death that is still talked about to this day.
The London-born singer saved her son’s life just before she was hit by a powerboat in Cozumel, Mexico, and her family has yet to receive justice for it. MacColl was best known for the Christmas hit song Fairytale of New York.
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The singer is known in the rock scene
Being the singer’s roots in the field, folk music had a strong influence on her art, but MacColl found her place in the alternative and rock scenes in the 80s and 90s.
Before that, she would sing backing vocals for famous groups like The Smiths and Simple Minds.
Fairytale of New York was her most famous
The song that brought MacColl to the forefront of the music industry was Fairytale of New York, which is also the most popular song of her career.
She sang the Christmas song in a duet with Shane McGowan and the Pogues.
She started her career with a rock band
Kirsty MacColl started out her career in music in the late 1970s with the punk rock band Drug Addix from Croydon, London.
She was a backup vocalist for the band under the pseudonym ‘Mandy Doubt’ instead of her real one.
MacColl became a solo artist
After that, MacColl was signed as a solo artist, breaking the top 20 with her country-pop song There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis in 1981.
This was after she had been struggling to break through in the early stages of her career.
She was a well-established artist by 2000
Her biggest-ever solo hit was a cover of Billy Bragg’s A New England in 1985 before FairyTale of New York was released two years later.
MacColl fully grew into a well-established artist by the end of 2000 and was even recording the presentation of a BBC radio program.
She passed away in Mexico
The British singer had been on holiday in Cozumel, Mexico with her two sons and her boyfriend, James Knight, when she tragically lost her life.
She had gone diving with her two sons when a powerboat entered the watercraft-restricted zone and was heading towards the trio as they surfaced.
MacColl saved her son’s life
The singer and mother noticed the powerboat speeding towards them and could only manage to push her son Jamie out of its way before tragically getting struck by it.
She was unfortunately killed on impact as she suffered severe head and chest injuries.
The singer’s body returned to the UK
After her death, MacColl’s body was taken back to the UK to be cremated on 20th January 2001 at a funeral service at Mortlake Crematorium in Kew.
Details on the owner of the powerboat were later revealed but MacColl never received justice.
The boat was owned by an influential figure
The powerboat that struck MacColl was owned by Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain founder, Carlos González Nova, whose brother is the multimillionaire Guillermo González Nova, president of the chain.
While Guillermo’s employee driving the powerboat, José Cen Yam, was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison, he got out of it by paying a fine.
The fine was incredibly minimal
Instead of spending his prison sentence, the man who had been driving the powerboat got out of it by paying a $78 fine and money to MacColl’s family.
The family launched the campaign Justice for Kirsty to push further action but the campaign was eventually dissolved when Carlos González Nova died of natural causes in 2009.
Last Updated on December 8, 2024 by Rachel Backland
