Introducing Amy Winehouse
Back to Black: UK Singing Sensation's New Album Is A Hit In America
With her throwback sound, unique sense of personal style and self-destructive tendencies, Amy Winehouse is undeniably someone to watch.
Currently riding high with both critical acclaim and album sales (three times platinum in the UK) of her second album Back To Black, Amy Winehouse is being billed as the next big thing.
A Female British Invasion
While Winehouse's contemporaries, Corrine Bailey Rae whose decidedly non-threatening soulful retro sound was nominated for four Grammy's and Lily Allen whose sassy Cockney-heavy lyrics and exuberantly chaotic mish-mash of musical styles can only be described as contemporary, Amy’s sound falls somewhere in between and seems to be striking the right chords with critics and the public alike.
Retro Inspiration and Modern Confessions
Clearly inspired by the girl groups of the 50s and 60s, Black To Black blends Motown stylings, fearlessly confessional lyrics with Amy’s smoky, bluesy vocal performance to make for an compelling listen. In the album’s first single Rehab, which hit #7 on the UK charts, Amy sings about how she reacted when her former management company tried to make her go to rehab (she said “No, no, no”) and in the second single You Know I’m No Good, she refuses to apologize for her infidelity (“I told you I was trouble”). It’s an unaffected, genuine, extremely listenable album.
Tabloids, Gossip and Rumours
Rake-thin, with heavily black-winged eye make-up, a gravity-defying beehive hairstyle and tattooed with pin-up girls, she happily stands out in the celebrity landscape. Candid about her battles with eating disorders, her penchant for alcohol, her anxieties, insecurites and broken hearts at the age of 23 much of Amy’s appeal comes the charming way she exhibits equal parts honesty, rebelliousness, maturity and cockiness. It’s no wonder she has been compared to that of such charismatic, iconic strutting peacock rock stars from the 60s and 70s as David Bowie and Mick Jagger.
Once referred to as the female Oliver Reed (the infinitely talented but famously drunk and brawling deceased British actor) Amy’s drinking is claimed to be both an advantage and disadvantage – she claims she is unable to perform when she is sober but has also famously had to leave the stage mid-performance and canceled concerts because of her excessive drinking. Her drunken appearance on the Charlotte Church show was a hit on YouTube and the British media gleefully follows her around hoping for a meltdown, brawl or wardrobe malfunction.
A True Original
Add to the mix her unapologetic personality, lack of media-honed cheerfulness, and self-destructive tendencies, and she easily trumps her contemporaries on the public fascination scale. At a time when the lifestyles of young female celebrities has become a part of everyday life thanks to the endless documentation and debate of their lack of underwear and hedonistic tendencies in gossip websites; just how genuine is it all? In a world where no publicity is bad publicity, it’s not so difficult to believe that these “oops!” moments might be partially or completely staged. But this doesn’t seem to be the case with Amy Winehouse, her flaws are as much a part of who she is as her talents and it is this that gives her an undeniable magnetism.
