I liked her music. :( I suppose this will only make her more popular.
Amy Winehouse Dead
Bummer,
It's a shane that so many people get off on watching train wrecks (and that so many more make money off the spectacle). It often turns the self-destructive artist stereotype into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For me, her nasty behaviour has always overshadowed her music, and as great a song as "Rehab" is, that makes it's deadly message all that much worse.
Still, way too young to die.
Not shocking but still very sad news.
She had an absolutely massive amount of raw, natural talent. It's sad to think of the career she could have had if she had been able to beat her personal demons. Rest in peace.
I had to look her up because I was not familiar with her work. She strikes me as a tragic character with the same demons that plagued Billy Holiday.
What a fucking waste.
The Age 27 curse claims another victim.
Jim Morrison
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
River Phoenix
Kurt Cobain
She was a great talent and great songwriter. It's a sad loss. I suppose the record industry and celebrity factory that is the West bears no blame.
ETA:
Why is there so little understanding of addiction?
Amy Winehouse is dead and any useful understanding of the mental illness that killed her seems far away. Already the portrait is painted and flat-packed, smelted and ready to become myth.
There is tiny Amy with the swaying beehive hair and the frightened eyes, tormented by her talent and the chaos it brought, famous at 21, dead at 27, now a member of the repulsively named "27 Club" of musicians who were also addicts and died at 27 – Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain. All dead, all revered, as if it was their illness that made them interesting. The initial, rushed obituaries made much of Winehouse "making it" into the 27 Club. Would she make it to 28 and be shut out? No, she got in, with 54 days to spare.
Why do we give so much energy to the thrilling pantomime of an alcoholic dying in the public eye, and so little to understanding the illness that took her there? It was obvious years ago that Winehouse sick was more grotesquely interesting than Winehouse sober; as she temporarily dried out, so did the press coverage. But she relapsed, and came home to fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUkMk7WRGQ - addiction is just...so tragic and hard to watch.
There was another prong to her addictive behaviour, other than incredibly over-the-top misuse of booze and drugs. She was also a poster girl for anorexia, and that is another killer phenomenon that is stranglely glamourised. It also makes the effects of a drug and drink bender all the more lethal.
That said she had a wonderful voice, and a great spirit. A terrible loss.
Excellent point, lagatta. Her anorexia, addiction and beauty were all packaged together as if one informed and buttressed the other.
An autopsy of British singer Amy Winehouse has not established the cause of her death at age 27, a coroner's official said on Monday.
Histology and toxicology tests will be performed to help determine the cause of death, after the singer was found dead at her London home on Saturday. Those test results are expected in two weeks.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/25/amy-winehouse-post-mortem-m...
.
Unfortunately in this case the media is just reflecting back what people around alcoholics do. My partner deals with addictions and sometimes it is so hard to sit and watch the people who enable him and give him attention, money or even alcohol plus a myriad of other things which allow his drinking to continue and even encourage it. The media giving her attention when she is drinking is part of a bigger societal picture of people who encourage addiction and, though interesting to note that the media is one of those people, I think there were a lot of people in her life who also encouraged it.
Interesting points, as a sufferer Refuge, thanks. Cheers Amy! Ya, funny Wildermore started this. I'll down another.
Amy Winehouse left a trove of unreleased music, but no decision has been made about whether it will be released, people close to the singer say.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/28/amy-winehouse-music.html