Kirsty MacColl, Pop Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 41 December 20, 2000 By JON PARELES Kirsty MacColl, a singer and songwriter with a string of hits in Britain, died on Monday in Mexico while vacationing in Cozumel. Reuters reported that her manager, Kevin Nixon, said that she was believed to have been hit by a speedboat in an area reserved for swimmers. She was 41 and lived in London. Ms. MacColl's songs were rooted in folk-rock and girl-group pop, and they tempered romance with realism, often merging witty but unflinching lyrics with buoyant choruses. She sang with a rich, smoky voice. "Unpretentious, inimitable, writes like a playwright, sings like an angel," the songwriter Billy Bragg wrote for her 1995 compilation album, "Galore" (I.R.S.). Ms. MacColl was the daughter of the folk songwriter Ewan MacColl. She began performing as a teenager in a punk band, the Drug Addix, which released an EP on the independent British label Chiswick. Her first single under her own name, "They Don't Know," was released by Stiff in 1979; it later became a major hit for Tracey Ullman. Ms. MacColl had a Top 20 hit in Britain in 1981 with "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop (Swears He's Elvis)," followed by the album "Desperate Characters." She married the producer Steve Lillywhite in 1984. She had a British hit single with her version of the Kinks' song "Days" in 1989; the album that included it, "Kite" (Virgin), also featured songs written with the guitarist Johnny Marr from the Smiths, a frequent collaborator. Mr. Lillywhite produced Ms. MacColl's 1991 album, "Electric Landlady" (Virgin); it was followed by "Titanic Days" (I.R.S.) in 1993. She and Mr. Lillywhite divorced in 1997. In March 2000, she released "Tropical Brainstorm" (V2), which drew on Cuban and Brazilian music. She made a radio documentary series on Cuban music, "Kirsty MacColl's Cuba," that was to be broadcast this week on BBC Radio 2, but has been postponed. Ms. MacColl sang with the Pogues on "Fairytale of New York," a 1987 British hit, and on the AIDS-relief album "Red Hot and Blue." She also did backup vocals on albums by the Rolling Stones, Morissey, Robert Plant, Simple Minds and Talking Heads. Bette Midler's album "Bette" includes a version of Ms. MacColl's song "In These Shoes?" She is survived by two sons, Jamie and Louis.
