The results are in! BBC Radio 2 listeners have been voting for their favourite duets from the 1980s and now it’s revealed that the winning song is ‘Fairytale Of New York’.

Jem Finer, who wrote the classic with Shane MacGowan, said “A huge thank you from us to the Radio 2 listeners for voting A Fairytale Of New York your Ultimate 80s duet. It’s amazing the song’s had such a life, such longevity. It took a long time to come together with about three years of endless revisions before we successfully recorded it with Kirsty MacColl and it became the version you know now. Then it took much good fortune and actually got to be heard by enough people to find its way into the charts and onto enduring popularity. So, thanks to you all, thanks to everyone through the years, thanks for listening.”

The Top 30 countdown, presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor is now available to listen to on BBC Sounds and it will also be broadcast on Radio 2 on Saturday 9th from 1-3pm.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002gw4p

Plus, there’s a 1 hour programme of the songs that didn’t make the Top 30 of the countdown.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002gw47

The full Top 40 results are also in this article.

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Stephen McNamara uploaded a video of Billy performing ‘A New England’ with the extra verse dedicated to Kirsty at The Piece Hall in Halifax last week.

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Actress Monica Dolan chose ‘Us Amazonians’ as one of her ‘Desert Island Discs’ broadcast today.  You can listen to it in the link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002gczt?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile&fbclid=IwY2xjawLzIedleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETBKbWV1Tld3ekw4T3Jlb2tkAR5nHn81rQFPTMjurrlQ6Eo9xE_bWtkXjPe9rAg52GCYO90afpkDFHzOtRbVGg_aem_tk9AM9BohXaRp7RKUPyiOA

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Jude Montague uploaded her cover of the song on Tuesday 15th.

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Dave Caruso uploaded his wonderful piano cover of ‘They Don’t Know’ on Sunday 13th.

2 days later, Marcus Austin uploaded a video of 0800 Rodeo performing the song on 18th January at The Hope & Ruin in Brighton.

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‘Fairytale Of New York’ is part of the shortlist for ‘Your Ultimate 80s Duet’. You have 5 votes, you can use all of them for 1 song or 5 different songs. Voting closes on Monday 21st at 12pm.  Please note: you can only vote within the UK or using a VPN.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ZF2hCtXqftFMhK7MyvSvr7/vote-for-your-ultimate-80s-duet

BBC Radio 2 will be revealing ‘Your Ultimate 80s Duets’ Top 40 in a show hosted by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It will be available first on BBC Sounds from 1st August. The programme will also be broadcast on Radio 2 on 9th August from 1-3pm.

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Demon/Edsel will be releasing a 2CD edition of  ‘Free World: The Best Of Kirsty MacColl 1979-2000’ on 3rd October.

Tracklisting

CD1:

1. A New England
2. Innocence (Single Remix)
3. They Don’t Know
4. There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis
5. Don’t Come the Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim!
6. Can’t Stop Killing You
7. England 2 Colombia 0
8. Walking Down Madison (7” Mix)
9. Free World (Radio Edit)
10. Terry
11. Don’t Go Near The Water
12. No Victims
13. You Just Haven’t Earned it Yet, Baby (from ”She’s Having A Baby”)
14. Fifteen Minutes
15. Mother’s Ruin

CD2:

1. Mambo De La Luna (Single Edit)
2. Angel (Single Edit)
3. In These Shoes?
4. My Affair (Single Edit)
5. Treachery
6. Caroline
7. Days
8. He’s on the Beach (Single Version)
9. Soho Square
10. Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby
11. All I Ever Wanted (Single Version)
12. Perfect Day
13. All The Tears That I Cried
14. You And Me Baby
15. Fairytale of New York

If you want to pre-order a copy, you can click the link below.

https://kirsty.lnk.to/FreeWorld

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On Saturday 12th, Rudy Adad uploaded a short video of Chong En Yu playing drums to a different cover version of ‘Days’.

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On 30th June, Dean Taylor uploaded his cover on the ‘State Of Mind’ YouTube channel. He also changed some of the lyrics in the first verse:

“I was 21 years when I wrote this song I’m 55 now, but I won’t be for long. People ask me when will I grow up to understand, why the girls I loved at school are already nans and grans”

A guitar tutorial video by Alan Robinson was uploaded on Thursday 10th.

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On Tuesday 17th, Sarah Collins uploaded her great versions of ‘Days’ and ‘Chip Shop’.

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