Late Late Show viewers moved to tears by Peggy Seeger's performance of iconic love song
Late Late Show viewers were moved to tears by Peggy Seeger’s performance of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
Peggy, one of the most iconic folk singers of all time, appeared on the first-ever Late Late Show Trad Special, which saw Patrick Kielty and co celebrate all things trad and folk music.
Speaking on her relationship with Ewan MacColl, whom she married in the 1970s after they fell in love in the 50s, Peggy spoke about the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face — which was written by Ewan about her — revealing that despite being one of the greatest love songs ever, she and Ewan were actually estranged at the time.
Pic: Andres Poveda
‘Ewan and I were estranged at the time,’ Peggy told host Patrick. ‘I was 21 when I met him, he said he was 39. He was actually 41, and he was married with a child, and that wasn’t my idea of the perfect match. So we were a bit estranged, and I went back to the United States.’
As for how she was told about the song, then radio host Peggy was told by her producers that they wanted a love song, with her joking: ‘I was singing American folk songs where somebody’s getting murdered or being shipped away to Australia or something like that, I didn’t have any happy love songs.’
While telling Ewan this over what she called an expensive transatlantic phone call, while they were ‘estranged talking,’ Ewan told her to ‘try this.’
Pic: Andres Poveda
‘And he sang it over the phone, and I wrote it down. And to be quite honest, it’s been covered by a thousand other singers who sing it in every possible way. It is a warhorse that’s still on the race track.’
After Ewan’s passing in 1989, Peggy said that she didn’t end up performing the song for two decades, but after finding love again with her partner Irene, she said: ‘when I sing it, I sing it to and from both of my life partners.’
With the lore of the song out of the way, Peggy performed it live on the Late Late — with people stunned that, aged 90, the singer still had the emotional chops behind the song.
‘Brilliant!. A wonderful lady…and 90 years old,’ one wrote on Twitter (X), while another commented: ‘you could hear a pin drop in the studio.’
‘Just saw on Wiki that Peggy is 90 years old – wow,’ another remarked, while another wrote on social media ‘Dang to be 90 years old and still perform like that. Incredible!!’
Peggy and Ewan met and fell in love in 1956, eventually reconnecting in 1958 in France. Despite Ewan being married to his second wife, Jean Newlove, the couple eventually married in 1977, having three children together.
Pic: Andres Poveda
Peggy would also become stepmother to Ewan’s daughter Kirsty, best known for the Fairytale of New York and There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis.
Ewan passed away in 1989, following complications from heart surgery in London, with Peggy having a long-term partner in traditional singer Irene Pyper-Scott.
The Late Late Show can be watched back on the RTÉ Player.
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