Hozier was the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live‘s” Christmas edition Saturday night, and for his second song, the Irish artist paid tribute to the Pogues’ classic “Fairytale of New York.”
On social media, viewers praised Hozier’s emotional cover of the song that has become a Christmas standard since it was released in 1987, finding it a fitting tribute to the Pogues’ singer Shane MacGowan, who died in 2013, as well as to the late Kristy MacColl, who dueted with MacGowan on the song.
“Hozier performing ‘Fairytale of New York’ has to be the most Irish thing ever and I’m here for it,” wrote one fan on X.
“Gorgeous version of ‘Fairytale of New York’ by Hozier & backup singers that did Shane MacGowan & Kirsty MacColl proud,” wrote Sinead O’Brien on X. “In honor of the delicate changes, I nominate ‘bowdlerize’ as the Word of the Day.” Bowdlerizing is “removing material that is considered improper or offensive from (a text or account),” according to the dictionary. O’Brien was referring to a line in the original lyrics of the song, now considered offensive: “You scumbag, you maggot, You cheap lousy faggot.”
Hozier and his backup singers instead sang “You scumbag, you maggot, you’re cheap and you’re haggard,” and one singer gave a big wink during the changed lyric. As early as 1992, MacColl was performing the song with the same lyric change. The line “You’re an old slut on junk” has also understandably been lost along the way.
MacGowan, who reportedly may have written the song in response to Elvis Costello challenging him to come up with a Christmas song, once described “Fairytale” as being about “these old Irish-American Broadway stars who are sitting round at Christmas talking about whether things are going okay.”
Hozier’s first performance on “Saturday Night Live” was “Too Sweet” from his 2024 EP “Unheard.”
Watch Hozier perform “Fairytale of New York” below.