Ronan's living in a fairytale if he thinks he can beat Shane.

I can't say I've ever been a big fan og Mister Keating. Actually, I've always seemed to call him the King of Karaoke and make a joke about how he sings through his nose. However, I did respect him for embracing the fact that he was Irish, that is until he took Shane MacGowan's epic Broadway tussle and turned it into to the aural equivalent of a trip round Tesco with his granny. 
He changed the line: 'You cheap, lousy faggot' to 'you're cheap and you're haggard' because he 'wouldn't want to offend anyone'.Take a listen and you'll realise that, quite frankly, he failed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daAG5JfNNFQ

Fairytale of New York was released by the Pogues along with british singer Kirsty Macoll. The song was written by Shane McGowan and Jim Finer. 
The song takes the form of a drunken man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge drinking session in a New York City. The remainder of the song  takes the form of a monologue between two Irish immigrants, lovers or ex-lovers. Throughout the song they speak about how their youthful hopes were crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction as they reminisce and bicker on Christmas Eve.

MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice. The lyrics are sometimes sometimes bittersweet and more times just plain bitter as they sing: "Happy Christmas your arse/ I pray God it's our last". The lyric "Sinatra was swinging" is likely an allusion to Sinatra's "New York, New York," which was very popular in Ireland at the time, a reference to the problems of emigration, especially amongst the Irish who often emigrated to New York without a penny in their pockets in a desperate attempt to find work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrAwK9juhhY


So when push comes to shove, one has to sit back and think. What does Ronan Keating really know about poverty, alcohol addiction and rural Ireland compared to Shane McGowan who is more than 20 years his senior, has grown up in poverty and battled with alcolism for his entire life? I'm just praying to God that Ronan honeatly didn't thing that he could portray in his voice the same amount of spirit and knowledge when covering this Irish classic. Because if he did, not only would he be singing through his nose, he'd be talking through his arse.