Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983- 23 July 2011) was found dead in her London Camden home by an ambulance crew. It was an ignonimous end for a talented musician whose talent was overshadowed by her personal demons and dependence on drugs and alcohol.
Amy Winehouse was born to Janis and Mitch Winehouse. The family was Jewish and had a history of playing jazz music. Amy showed signs of her musical talent early on when she formed a rap group “Sweet and Sour” at age 10. She started writing songs at age 13, upon receiving her first guitar. She was discovered in 2003 aged 16, by soul singer Tyler James. The same year, she wrote “Frank” “which went on to win critical acclaim in Britain and eventually cut platinum. In 2006, Amy Winehouse released “Back to back”, which garnered her 5 Grammy awards and won her worldwide fame.
Amy Winehouse, in her personal life went through a break up with her boyfriend. The pressure on her by media made her resort to marijuana. She was a creative soul with all an artist’s insecurities. As in most celebrities, she was troubled by writer’s block and her excesses with drugs and alcohol brought her under the media’s relent less scrutiny.
Fame and the pressure made life difficult for Amy – she tried to strike out by refusing to be pigeonholed into any category. Her distinctive beehive hairdo, over the top make up and numerous tattoos were ways in which she expressed her individuality. Amy Winehouse acknowledged her eating disorders and her struggles to give up alcohol. There were reports that she had been diagnosed as a manic depressive. However, she refused to go on medication.
Her public performances were steadily getting worse and began the phase of fall from grace. At a concert in Belgrade in 2008, she stumbled through stage in a drunken stupor till her audiences booed her off stage. Tabloids printed photographs of her stumbling out of nightclubs and being helped out as she was unable to stand on her own. Her tart tongue and barbed comments about peers did not endear her to the music industry.
Friends and family tried to help by checking her into rehabilitation and keeping her living area drug and alcohol free. Her short lived marriage with Blake Civil Fielder broke down, and she retreated further into herself.
Amy made her disdain for rehabilitation clear-“Her song Rehab goes like this: “hey tried to make me go to rehab” -Rehab.-I said 'No, no.'
Eventually her hard drinking, smoking, drug fuelled lifestyle took a toll on her health- she was diagnosed with emphysema and was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions after fainting.
She joined the ranks of other famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin when she passed way aged 27.
In retrospect, it appears that her early success and fame was too much for her to shoulder. Amy was immensely talented- she never let herself live up to her prodigious promise. Amy was plagued with self-doubt and insecurities- As Amy said, she was a musician and was really not looking to get famous. It appears that fame just cost the world of music its latest victim- Amy Winehouse.