AMY WINEHOUSE
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soul
Amy Winehouse talks drugs, drink, eating disorders, love, rehab and music with Craig McLean.
t‘s the morning after the tabloid outrage the night before. The weekend before we meet, Amy Winehouse was due to perform at GAY. the full-on. no-holds-barred club institution in the heart of London. Kylie‘s done
it with her sister Danni, McFly dropped their
pants there. any number of Pop Idols have attempted to establish their tongue-in-cheek cred in this crucible of none-more-gay hedonism.
But good old Winehouse outdid even the madferrit GAY punters. She got onstage around lam. wobbled through a song, looked a bit ashen. gulped a few times. then dashed offstage and barfed in the wings. Nice. Amy Winehouse then exited the building, sharpish.
The tabloids lapped it up. She’d been out drinking all day with ‘gal-pal’ Kelly Osbourne.
She’d been too drunk to stand up. Her E
vomiting onstage was but the latest outrage from the punchy. mouthy. boozy. rehab-y soul singer. Gawd bless ‘er!
The truth. Winehouse insists when we meet at the studios of breakfast show GMTV by the River Thames. was a little less exciting. She’d arrived back from a holiday in Miami with a nasty bug. ‘I haven’t had a drink in a few days.’ she says. She is indeed sounding croaky and nursing a bright-red. super-healthy smoothie.
It’s a mark of Winehouse‘s gold—plated talent. and of the staggering brilliance of her second album Back To Black. that even when she’s allegedly acting like a booze-sodden mentalist. the red-tops can’t get enough of her. Her antics — clumping an aggressive female fan here. appearing drunk on a TV show there — are reported with affection rather than censure.
14 THE LIST 15 Feb — 1 Mar 2007
Everyone loves Amy Winehouse. No wonder. There’s never been a star like the north London singer. A singer who sounds like Ella Fitzgerald but carries on like Oliver Reed. A woman who‘s had her battles with eating disorders and drinking to excess — but who discusses them. not with poor-me woefulness. but with ballsy candour. The Jewish daughter of a cabbie who, like a proper cabbie herself, always speaks her mind. A sublimely-gifted songwriter who writes about being addicted to spliff. fighting with ex-boyfriends and refusing to be dragged to rehab.
‘1 can express myself.’ she says with a shrug. ‘I‘m not an idiot. I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable. I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally — and then I write a song about it and I feel better.‘
Some people. I suggest. write songs as a front — “I’m alright me. honest”. Winehouse nods.
‘A lot of people who write songs don‘t see them as a way out of a desperate situation. A lot of people write songs and they have a marketplace in mind. and a demographic.‘
When she first emerged in 2003. Winehouse’s demographic appeared to be that of a slightly edgier Dido. She had a tremendous voice. for sure. She could ‘do‘ emotion with way more sincerity than any silly little pop person. But the songs on her debut album Frank were smooth soul of a coffee table-ish hue. it emerged that she was an alumni of the Brits School in south London (see also: Katie Melua. The Kooks). and that she was managed by Simon ‘Spice Girls/Pop ldol‘ Fuller‘s l9 corporation. ‘1 met Simon Fuller. like. two times!‘ she exclaims.
> ‘I'M NOT AN IDIOT. I CAN EXPRESS MYSELF AND
, I'M NOT FRIGHTENED
: OF APPEARING VULNERABLE. | WRITE
' SONGS ABOUT STUFF
f THAT I CAN'T REALLY
' GET PAST PERSONALLY'