The Tragedy of Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse, the popular British hip hop singer, tragically died today at the age of 27 at her home in London, England. Having lived a rather troubled life full of drugs and alcohol, ill formed relationships, and poor diets, having a short life seemed rather inevitable for her. To the media and her fans, she was a talented pop singer, being compared to the likes of Janis Joplin. Yet she was not considered to be a truly great singing talent by any means. She could not be compared to, say, Judy Garland, even though she also had eating disorders and substance abuse problems. Most of her popular songs such as "You Know I'm No Good", "Rehab", and "Stronger Than Me" are forgettable but not because her generation in the music industry lacks real musical talent, either. In many ways, Amy wanted to be a star even though she did not really have the discipline to actually become one. Her parents attempted to groom her for show business, sending her to Sylvia Young Theatre School in Westminster, London, to help her develop acting skills and confidence. But she did not last long at this school, refusing to take her acting classes seriously, and was thus expelled. For Amy, her only ticket into show business was her contacts: boyfriend Tyler James, who was a soul singer, who eventually sent into a demo tape of her voice to a producer at EMI, Salaam Remi. From her first album released in 2003, titled "Frank", her promising music career soon took off. But things were not all rosy in Amy's world.

To begin with, she was a party girl. The partying seemed to fit in perfectly with the music business, but for her it turned into a much more destructive form. Her usage of illegal drugs and alcohol affected her stage performances, with the most recent one causing her to cancel a tour in Europe as of June 2011, reportedly being too inebriated to stand up on stage in front of an audience to sing. She was also off key when she toured Brazil in January of this year, not being completely together despite a supportive audience. Amy's past performances were no more forgiving: in November of 2007 she was actually booed off the stage in Birmingham, England, for being too intoxicated to sing. It is entirely possible that Amy's alcohol problems were also the result of stage fright, being unable to get up on stage and perform live, even though her recording sessions showed her to be in much better form. Her family attempted to help her overcome her substance addictions, but to no avail. Her grandmother died in 2006, the one family member she was closest to, sent her spiraling downwards. Even her father attempted to help her, but Amy still continued to abuse drugs and continue in troubled relationships, which include Blake Fielder-Civil, a school dropout, and Josh Bowman. Her choice of boyfriends remained questionable in the eyes of her fans and the media, who seemed to report only the negative stories about her when they did not mention her 2008 Grammy Award winnings.

Being so young, one can only wonder if poor Amy could have had a healthier life had she not been pushed into the music business. The permissive environment she lived in certainly did not help her any. By all accounts, Amy Winehouse probably should not have been involved in the music business, having a mediocre singing voice. With the Grammy Awards being largely political, Amy has become the epitome of what is wrong with the music business today. She certainly did not have to die, but could have channeled her energies into a more productive and happier lifestyle that would have led to her being alive today without relying upon illegal drugs and alcohol for an "escape" from her emotional troubles.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-singer-amy-winehouse-dies-age-27-170841681.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Winehouse