Black Folks Relate to Amy Winehouse In More Ways Than OneWhen Back to Black arrived 10 months ago, critics and fans hailed Amy Winehouse as the future of soul music. Now they wonder whether she has a future.
The album generated six Grammy nominations for the eyelinered, tattooed R&B sensation, whose reckless lifestyle has turned a rising star into popular prey for paparazzi and, increasingly, a punch line.
"The danger of all this bad publicity is that she looks not just like a tragedy in the making, which would actually bolster the sad aura of the songs, but that she's also being made into a cartoonish figure," says Entertainment Weekly music critic Chris Willman. "That keeps people from taking the music seriously. The album is still a classic, no matter what happens in her personal life or how sad or ridiculous her image becomes."
Winehouse, 24, entered rehab last Thursday after video of the disheveled British singer supposedly smoking crack sparked a Scotland Yard investigation. Disclosed last week by U.K. tabloid The Sun, the 19-minute clip follows months of stumbles: a pot bust in Norway, a canceled tour, disturbing photos of Winehouse bruised and bloodied or wandering the street distraught, barefoot and in a red push-up bra. Husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who was arrested last June in the beating of a bartender and then again in a suspected attempt to bribe the victim, awaits trial on charges of assault and witness tampering.
Winehouse has confessed to struggles with eating disorders and self-mutilation. She skipped out on a detox stint in August after being diagnosed as alcoholic, she told Blender. Her hit single Rehab ("They tried to make me go to rehab/I said no, no, no") reflects her controversial posture on sobriety. By contrast, reformed bad girl Courtney Love seems hatched from a Jane Austen novel. Continue reading>>>
The album generated six Grammy nominations for the eyelinered, tattooed R&B sensation, whose reckless lifestyle has turned a rising star into popular prey for paparazzi and, increasingly, a punch line.
"The danger of all this bad publicity is that she looks not just like a tragedy in the making, which would actually bolster the sad aura of the songs, but that she's also being made into a cartoonish figure," says Entertainment Weekly music critic Chris Willman. "That keeps people from taking the music seriously. The album is still a classic, no matter what happens in her personal life or how sad or ridiculous her image becomes."
Winehouse, 24, entered rehab last Thursday after video of the disheveled British singer supposedly smoking crack sparked a Scotland Yard investigation. Disclosed last week by U.K. tabloid The Sun, the 19-minute clip follows months of stumbles: a pot bust in Norway, a canceled tour, disturbing photos of Winehouse bruised and bloodied or wandering the street distraught, barefoot and in a red push-up bra. Husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who was arrested last June in the beating of a bartender and then again in a suspected attempt to bribe the victim, awaits trial on charges of assault and witness tampering.
Winehouse has confessed to struggles with eating disorders and self-mutilation. She skipped out on a detox stint in August after being diagnosed as alcoholic, she told Blender. Her hit single Rehab ("They tried to make me go to rehab/I said no, no, no") reflects her controversial posture on sobriety. By contrast, reformed bad girl Courtney Love seems hatched from a Jane Austen novel. Continue reading>>>