Amy Winehouse: What a waste of talent
Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:30 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
Music, Pop culture
See a certain celebrity’s name pop up in the news and you just know it’s for nothing good. Courtney Love used to be the perfect example. Then it was Pete Doherty. For a long period of time, it was Britney Spears. Now it’s Amy Winehouse. There’s no question the woman is talented, but will she ever get to share any more of her talents, or will she self-destruct first?
In the spring of 2007, it seemed you could hear "Rehab" (watch the video here) blaring from every radio in the U.S. Time Magazine later named it their No. 1 song of the year. The magazine wrote, "Amy Winehouse is so confident she's got the goods on 'Rehab' that she starts her vocal a half beat before the music comes in." Hey, if you can back it up, it isn't bragging.
When I first heard the song without knowing anything about the singer, I assumed Winehouse was a world-weary fiftysomething R&B singer who'd been toiling in smoky nightclubs for years. Her voice was a marvel. But then I saw her, and realized that under the beehive hair and heavy eye makeup she was just 23. When I later learned that she wrote the song herself and that it was autobiographical, I was even more impressed. But then the news stories started to pour in. She appeared bruised and bloody after an alleged fight with her husband. She threatened fans after a slurred performance. She canceled performances on doctors' orders. She was arrested. She got into a scuffle with two men. She had to apologize after singing racist slurs. Her father said she had emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack (her publicist denied the "emphysema" part).
Her marketing company defended her, saying that as long as she remained talented, her records would sell. Saying, in essence, the music could speak for itself. Well, yes, it has -- and the lyrics are heartbreakingly prophetic. ("I didn't get a lot in class ... but I know it don't come in a shot glass.")
She won a record-tying five Grammys in February but couldn't pick them up in person, since she was in a rehab clinic. Musical legend Natalie Cole was blunt about Winehouse's wins, saying "I don't think she deserved it. ... I think she needs to get her life together first, and then get the awards later."
Some observers are pretty smug about Winehouse's issues -- one Web site invites readers to pick the day she'll die. It's hard to feel much sympathy for someone who comes off in public as she did. As if the racial slurs and the taunting of her supposed fans weren't enough, she doesn't help matters either by lighting up in full view of the press just after her lung issues were announced.
Anyone who's ever known someone with an addiction understands the sad truth. You can't save someone from themselves. But watching Winehouse self-destruct through daily headlines is disturbing at best, heartbreaking at worst. What a waste of talent.
Update: Rolling Stone has a truly bizarre interview with Winehouse online now.
