Kirsty MacColl’s death is still as tragic today as it was decades ago, but many people do not know the true story of what happened.
At the time, MacColl was 41 and swimming in the sea with her sons, when the incident occurred.
The British singer was successful throughout the 1980s and 90s, dabbling in new wave and alternative rock whilst keeping true to her folk roots.
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She began her career by singing backing vocals for groups such as Simple Minds and The Smiths before duetting with Shane McGowan and The Pogues on the iconic Christmas hit.
Fairytale of New York.
If you’re British, you’ll know that this hit is played on repeat right up until the big day and it’s one of the most loved songs to put on during the festive season.
Did you know that MacColl changed the offensive lyric long before we started doing it ourselves?
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Generally, when the song comes on, there’s always someone who immediately pipes up with, ‘Did you know that the woman who sang this died?’ before getting into the horrid details of her death.
Her legacy was marked as soon as the song was released, and it’ll last many more years to come.
Who was Kirsty MacColl?
MacColl was born in Surrey in 1959 to her father, Ewan MacColl, one of the most influential figures in the folk-revival in the 60s Britain.
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He actually founded England's first-ever folk music club, The Ballads and Blues Club.
Her mum was a dancer called Jean Newlove, who died in 2017.
For MacColl, she decided that music was her calling and took up with Croydon punk rock band Drug Addix in the late 1970s, as a backup singer called 'Mandy Doubt'.
While record executives didn’t sign band, they did sign her as a solo artist.
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In 1981, she broke into the top 20 with the song 'There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' and her 1985 cover of Billy Bragg's 'A New England' charted at number seven in the UK.
Two years later, she became instrumental in British music when 'Fairytale of New York' was released.
However, by December 2000, she was working with the BBC recording the presentation of a radio programme in Cuba.
How did Kirsty MacColl die?
After her BBC gig, she travelled to Cozumel, Mexico with her two sons and boyfriend, singer James Knight.
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Her and the boys went diving in a reef, which was a designated spot for divers, where watercrafts were not allowed to enter.
However, once they resurfaced from a dive with their instructor, MacColl spotted a powerboat racing through the restricted zone and it was heading towards them all.
While her youngest son was clear of the boat’s path, her other son, Jamie was directly in its way.
Pushing him away from the boat, MacColl took the force of the boat, sustaining severe head and chest injuries which killed the artist on impact.
Her son managed to get away with minor head and rib injuries.
After her death, her body was taken back to the UK, and cremated at a funeral service at Mortlake Crematorium in Kew on 20th January 2001.
What was the aftermath of Kirsty MacColl’s death?
As it turned out, the owner of the boat was the founder of Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain, Carlos González Nova, who was on board with his family that day.
He was also the brother of the chain's multimillionaire president, Guillermo González Nova.
At the time, an employee of Guillermo, José Cen Yam claimed to have been in control of the boat (a fact debated by eyewitnesses) and was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to two years and ten months in prison.
However, he evaded prison and paid a £61 fine and a couple thousand to MacColl's family in damages.
In response to the court proceedings, MacColl's family launched the Justice For Kirsty campaign, pushing for a judicial review due to the lack of cooperation from the Mexican government on the incident.
In 2009, Carlos González Nova died of natural causes aged 92, leading her family to dissolve her campaign as they had completed most of their goals.
All remaining funds were donated to charity, which her family said 'Kirsty would have approved' of.
Britt Jones