Kirsty MacColl, whose sweetly ironic voice balanced the gruff romanticism of Shane McGowan in the Christmas classic A Fairytale of New York, has died in a boating accident.
A speedboat is understood to have collided with the 41-year-old singer-songwriter while she was on holiday in Mexico, on the eve of the first part of a BBC Radio 2 series she recorded in Havana.
The BBC said it had postponed the series as a mark of respect.
The singer died yesterday in the sea close to the coral island of Cozumel, which is off the Yucatan peninsula.
She was holidaying there with her two sons, who were both with her in the water at the time. The children were said to be unhurt.
MacColl, a keen diver, is believed to have been hit by the boat which was in an area reserved for swimmers.
Her former husband, record producer Steve Lillywhite, was flying to Mexico to comfort the children.
"I was shocked to hear the news," said the disc jockey Johnnie Walker, a friend. "She was one of the true, real characters of popular music and although there has been pressure on women in music to conform to the music business she was always herself and said 'I am what I am'."
But McGowan's Fairytale, recorded by The Pogues in 1987, will be her memorial today. "I think it's the best Christmas record there is," she once said. "I feel that I can say that very modestly, not having written it. I thought 'I'll give it a go and if they don't like it they can get someone else'."
MacColl, the daughter of British folk movement hero Ewan MacColl, had two children with Lillywhite. She had worked with a record store of musicians, including The Smiths, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Robert Plant, Van Morrison and the Wonder Stuff, and appeared at a concert in memory of Ian Dury in London last summer.
Her work had a peculiarly British sensibility, with songs such as There's A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Thinks He's Elvis but she developed a taste for Cuban and Brazilian music in recent years. This was reflected in Tropical Brainstorm, her well-received seventh album, released this year.
"Red hair, sharp tongue - she should be Irish," Bono, of U2, once said. "I think of Kirsty as one in a line of great English songwriters that includes Ray Davies, Paul Weller and Morrissey. The Noelle Coward of her generation.
"I remember Kirsty McColl as just a really brainy, funny girl whose songwriting came from all different traditions."
MacColl's first single, They Don't Know, came out in 1979. She later made the top ten when she recorded Billy Bragg's A New England.