Obituary: Kirsty MacColl

Singer-songwriter. Died in Mexico on Wednesday, aged 41

Gifted British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl's death in a boating accident this week has stunned musicians and music fans. She was killed on a diving holiday in Mexico, where she was hit by a speedboat.

MacColl was with her two sons, who were not hurt. The singer had organised the diving holiday to help the boys to get over the death of a friend.

MacColl was not a household name, but her cleverly crafted songs, forays into international music, particularly of Cuba and Brazil, and her lyrics that offered a funny and penetrating view on contemporary life, had built up a large and loyal following.

U2's Bono once described her as "the Noel Coward of her generation," and Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, had likened her songs to "the wit of Ray Davies and the harmonic invention of the Beach Boys."

Her fans were delighted with her latest album, Tropical Brainstorm, a mixture of Latin rhythms and caustic commentaries on the sex war. Critics thought it the best of the seven albums in her 21-year career.

MacColl, the daughter of the folk singer Ewan MacColl, made her name in 1981 with the typically quirky There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop (Swears He's Elvis). She later had an international hit singing with the Pogues on their 1987 Fairytale of New York, voted the fourth most popular Christmas single of all time.

In 1995 she released an album on which she poked fun at death by asking her peers to write the sleeve notes in the form of a eulogy. The tributes praised her knack for writing the perfect pop single, her angelic voice and her ability to drink her contemporaries under the table.