Amy Winehouse

by Chas Newkey-Burden

  The Village Voice hailed her as a ‘dazzling soul saviour’ and Spin magazine referred to her ‘seductive croon and impressive vocal acrobatics’ that ‘transformed the venue into a mid-century jazz club’. Universal UK’s international marketing director, Chris Dwyer, said the shows ‘really got the ball rolling. They were both sold out, had fantastic online and print reviews and everybody was talking about Amy Winehouse in New York when she left.’

  Dork Magazine said, ‘Fortunately the songs sounded as good, if not better than their studio counterparts. Her stage presence initially let on that she seemed a little nervous. The audience’s encouraging shouts, and maybe those amaretto sours she drank, shooed away any butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.’ As for Bill Bragin, director of Joe’s Pub, he enthused, ‘She’s got a great voice; she’s got great songs; she’s already coming with a larger-than-life persona. She’s got all the elements of a star.’ The audience included such musical royalty as Hendryx, Citizen Cope and Dr John. Mos Def was also present and wrote his phone number on Amy’s jeans backstage and ordered her to call him. Jay-Z also came backstage and raved about Back To Black. At the end of the night, Amy summed it up in one word; ‘surreal’.

  Soon she was to perform at Landsdowne Street in Boston, a 2,000-plus-capacity, multipurpose venue that regularly plays host to both the world’s top DJ talent and the world’s most popular touring artists. It was one of the first big concerts Amy performed in America. Wearing jeans and white tank top, she performed for about fifty minutes. The Patriot Ledger’s reviewer said,

  She brought little to no stage presence, appeared heavily inebriated and barely moved around, delivering most of her parts without necessary oomph and often with lazy phrasing. Of the album cuts, only ‘Me and Mr Jones’ had the room bumping; other ballads, R&B nuggets and hoped-for showstoppers fell flat, despite her smoky delivery.

  However, fans who were present gave far more positive reviews of her performance. So too did the Boston Globe, which chimed in with,

  Winehouse was so effortlessly, unassumingly herself: no airs, no anxiety, no ingratiating shout-outs to her heroes… The plastic cup from which Winehouse sipped, and then began to drain, did work a certain magic, as the beverage seemed to go straight to her vocal pipes… Winehouse’s tones grew bigger and rounder, her licks wilder.

  But the audience seemed restless at times and failed to pay attention to slower, longer tracks such as ‘Love is a Losing Game’. (However, that very song was at the same time receiving praise from none other than Prince, who said he was a huge fan of it and hoped Amy would one day join him on stage. Music producer David Gest was also quoted in the press praising Amy, though in somewhat more bizarre terms: ‘I would kiss the mole on Amy Winehouse’s face and every tattoo on her body, and I’d stick my tongue in the gap where her tooth is missing,’ he drooled. ‘I love her.’)

  Soon there was a concert at the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The acts that have memorably performed there include Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana, Tori Amos, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Al Stewart, Jane’s Addiction and David Bowie, and even Jay-Z & Linkin Park have played this highly prestigious venue. Amy’s performance at the Roxy drew a celebrity-studded audience – including the likes of Courtney Love, the Strokes’ Fabrizio Moretti, Bruce Willis and Grey’s Anatomy stars Kate Walsh and Sara Ramirez – and she paired a turquoise strapless dress with leopard-print stilettos.

  Introducing ‘You Know I’m No Good’, she told of a time she had betrayed a lover and then told him, ‘I do love you’, then added, ‘But, like, I get bored. I told you I’m no good!’ The quip drew a hearty laugh from the crowd. LA Weekly said,

  Live, Winehouse was noticeably nervous but utterly charming, singing for an audience who knew all the words to all the songs. She was in spectacular voice throughout, backed by a crack band (man, that horn section…) and two chicly attired male backup singers who energetically pulled off synchronized choreography.

  Winehouse’s own herky-jerky, off-the-beat dancing and ragged emulation of girl-group style somehow underscored an aura of sincerity (a matted beehive with an unkempt tail; an ill-fitting dress that kept sliding down her scary-thin frame; weathered leopard-print shoes rummaged from the back of some tranny’s closet). Her awkward performance of femininity befits a woman who can’t quite figure how to stop fucking up her relationships and her life.

  Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was in the audience and said, ‘She is the stuff of legend, and on Monday night a who’s who of hipsters and Hollywood players were treated to a tour de force performance by the “Rehab” chanteuse. You never know if Wino is gonna show up to a gig or if she’ll even make it through a show, but she more than held her own at the Roxy.’

  And so back to New York. She was interviewed by the prestigious and high-circulation New York Post ahead of her two concerts at the Highline Ballroom. The interview took place in the entirely appropriate surroundings of Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse, a touristy shrine of ‘real’ Ashkenazi Jewish kitsch. Amy ordered the traditional Jewish dish of chopped liver.

  ‘I’m not ambitious or career-minded. I did an album that I’m really proud of and that’s about it for me,’ she said. ‘The rest of it is all bollocks. I love playing live. That’s about it. I wish I could say something more interesting.’

  Based on West 16th Street between the Meatpacking and Chelsea districts, the Highline Ballroom opened in April 2007 and has featured such names as Mos Def, Jonathan Brooke, Spank Rock, Meshell Ndegeocello, Talib Kweli, moe., Disco Biscuits and – of course – Amy during its opening month.

  Amy was nervous on the night, according to reports. In front of a sell-out audience, including the likes of Talib Kweli, Samantha Ronson and Jane Krakowski, the gig, said the New York Post, was ‘a drowsy affair because the super-skinny Brit not only has little stage presence, her limited soul style steamrolls her repertoire into flat sameness. One song blended into the next, and her mostly bloodless delivery stood in direct contrast to the music she was singing.’ It also dubbed her a ‘Stepford Singer’ and the best it could bring itself to say was, ‘The show was too short to be really awful,’ adding that, with ‘F**k Me Pumps’ and ‘Rehab’, she was on form.

  The New York Times also had some criticisms of Amy, but added much praise to the mix. ‘The moaning, gliding notes took on an ache or a flamboyance, and the pauses became sly and coquettish or pained. Her spontaneity grew both defiant and playful.’ The article concluded on a positive note, saying that, despite her performance being somewhat disappointing, ‘her self-consciousness, and the bluntness she has learned from hip-hop, could help lead soul into 21st-century territory’.

  Her growing fame in America was leading soul into some strange territories. At designer Patricia Field’s birthday party at Manhattan’s Cielo, JoJo America of the Ones performed ‘Rehab’ in drag. Then Amy was quoted discussing US socialite and actress Lindsay Lohan.

  ‘I want to coddle that girl. I really want to hug her,’ she said as she worried aloud about the Hollywood party girl to a US magazine. She added the punchline, ‘I saw pictures of her coming out of the doctor’s and she’s crying. She’s holding papers in her hand, like, “Oh, it’s a note from my liver saying, ‘Dear Lindsay, I’ve gone to Vegas.’”’

  Soon, the US media were really buzzing. Indiana’s newspaper, the Star Press, told its readers, ‘Winehouse will seduce you with her voice and suck you in with her wicked words. Don’t fight it.’ The Rockford Register Star’s Melissa Westphal added,

  I’m going to need a 12-step program if my obsession with the new Amy Winehouse CD continues. Seriously, folks. I’m talking about a don’t-skip-a-track format here. Winehouse tackles love, breakups and exes with humor and a deep, soulful voice that’s part blues singer, part ’60s girl group lead singer. Let’s just say it’s more unique than anything you’ve heard lately.

  The leading UK music critic Garry Mulholland has told the author that Amy has – to all intents and purp
oses – already made it in America. ‘As far as I can see, she’s cracked America – maybe not every single part of the Midwest but the major cities,’ he said. ‘She’s cracked it – and the big TV shows, too. There’s a long tradition of British artists selling American music back to them. That’s precisely what she’s done so of course they love her.

  ‘It’s cyclical. New York and LA and the college towns become obsessed with Britishness – hence “a British invasion”. Then people move on and get bored and move on to something else. At this moment we’re having a good period in America, whether it’s middle-of-the-road things like James Blunt or whether it be edgy things like Lily Allen and Lady Sovereign. What she has, which a lot of those acts don’t have but which Radiohead have, hence their success in America, is absolutely inarguable quality.’

  However, Mulholland stops short of saying Amy can completely dominate in America. He argues that the level of slogging and sycophancy required to become a mega-artist in America is not something Amy would be well suited to. Quite, the opposite, he argues. ‘To break America, the whole enormous country, involves a very great deal of trekking around the whole of America glad-handing anyone who is put in front of you. This is what stops an awful lot of British acts from breaking America because they’re not prepared to spend months of their time not playing or writing, just wandering around America sticking their tongues up the arses of minor radio executives. But that’s what people are expected to do to become enormous in America. Amy is absolutely un-designed to do that, I can’t think of an artist less designed to do that. So, no, she probably won’t sell as many records as Garth Brooks, but who needs to?’

  Amy herself would concur with Mulholland’s assessment. ‘America’s a big place. There’s a lot of people here that aren’t worth insulting. That sounds even worse than saying a direct insult… but there’s bad music everywhere. I don’t talk about it. I’m very passionate about music, but usually I can be a diplomat and that is what I’ll be doing while I’m here – hopefully.’

  However, Amy’s proudest moment in America was yet to come. The most prestigious music awards there – and arguably the most prestigious in the world – are the Grammys. The Grammys originated in 1957 when top record executives from Los Angeles decided to create an association where recording professionals could be rewarded for their artistic creativity. The Grammys ceremony is the time when everyone in the music industry comes together to commemorate the year’s best musical achievements and highlights.

  Down the years there have been plenty of memorable moments at the Grammys. In 1971, the Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year categories were won by Simon and Garfunkel with Bridge Over Troubled Water. The following year saw the first Grammys to be televised and first held in New York. Since then, the broadcast of the ceremony has become a major event in the television calendar. Other years that might have caught Amy’s attention include 1996, when her hero Frank Sinatra won Best Traditional Pop Vocal for Duets II, and 2004 when Beyoncé Knowles won five Grammys. Other winners in recent years include Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2 and Mary J Blige. It is held at the $375 million Staples Center in Los Angeles.

  Given this glittering background and the prestige of the award, Amy was delighted to learn that in 2007 she was nominated in not just one but six categories for the fiftieth annual awards, to be held in February 2008. She was nominated in the Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album categories. Amy was the only performer to appear in all four of the most prestigious categories, but she fell short of drawing the most nominations. That distinction went to the rap star Kanye West, who led the field with eight nominations, including his third for Album of the Year for the latest CD in his college-themed trilogy, Graduation. Her rivals for the Record of the Year were Beyoncé’s ‘Irreplaceable’, Foo Fighters’ ‘The Pretender’, Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ and Justin Timberlake’s ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’.

  Host George Lopez had a few jokes at her expense at the nomination ceremony in Los Angeles in December. ‘Could somebody wake her up this afternoon around six [o’clock] and tell her?’ Lopez said. ‘Usually when I’m high and drunk, I’m not very good, but Amy has it down to where she can get a good buzz going and be very creative. She makes Lindsay Lohan look cool.’

  Naturally, news of Amy’s sextet of nominations made huge headlines in America and back in Britain. WEST IS BEST, WITH AMY RIGHT BEHIND, screamed the New York Post. The New York Times wondered aloud whether her ‘well-publicized problems raised questions about how Grammy voters would view her’. The Los Angeles Times went with, WINEHOUSE IS BUZZ-WORTHY FOR THE GRAMMYS. The Canada National Post ran with, WINEHOUSE VS. FEIST: A GRAMMY SHOWDOWN. Back in England, The Times was more sober: AMY WINEHOUSE HAS REASON TO CELEBRATE WITH SIX GRAMMY NOMINATIONS. Most memorable of the lot, though, was the Village Voice, which headlined its response THIS YEAR’S GRAMMY NOMINATIONS: FUCKING INSANE. In a less direct way, some at home complained about Amy’s nominations, too. Amanda Platell wrote in the Daily Mail that, despite Amy’s problems,

  Our amoral music industry lionises her. What sort of message does that send out to the singer, and more pertinently, to her many young and impressionable fans? For the music industry so publicly to canonise a self-destructive junkie is to endorse and encourage her nihilistic behaviour.

  GRAMMYS MAY BE LIVING DANGEROUSLY THIS YEAR, said the San Diego Union Tribune. ‘Viewers can expect potential fireworks from West and a possible meltdown from Winehouse, whose very public drug and alcohol problems have made her a tabloid queen in Europe and beyond.’ It was also discussed that another of the nominees, Chad Pimp C Butler had died shortly before he received his nomination. So there was plenty for the tabloid press to get their teeth into there, too.

  Among those in the American record industry, there was joy. ‘Amy Winehouse is incredible. I think she should have got a little more positive recognition,’ said singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. Grammy-winning producer John Shanks called Winehouse’s album Back to Black, which included the telling hit ‘Rehab’, ‘an important record’. Shanks added, ‘I don’t think her troubles are really going to hurt her. I think the sound of that album made an impact.’

  First word from Amy herself in response came via the mouth of Mark Ronson. ‘I called her today because the record was something that we went through together… Hopefully she will get into America so we can celebrate. Amy doesn’t get excited about anything,’ he explained. ‘She was never once excited while in the studio. And today she’s just like, “Yeah, Ronnie Chops, we got Grammy nominations.” That’s her. But she’s happy and psyched.’

  This was followed by the official statement from Amy herself: ‘Thank you for all your kind letters and emails, I am grateful for all your support. I’m honoured to have my music recognised with these nominations – this is a true validation from people I respect and admire.’

  More than anything, Amy and those close to her hoped that these nominations would remind people that, for all the controversy and discussion that surrounded her lifestyle, Amy remains a musical artist and a supremely talented one at that. ‘After a tempestuous year of incredible highs and incredible lows, some people forget that she isn’t just a tabloid queen,’ said an excited Island Records Group UK president Nick Gatfield. ‘She’s actually a hugely talented artist. We are all really pleased about the Grammy nominations, obviously. And we hope things will get better from now on. She must keep busy.

  ‘It’s a reflection of her status [in the United States] that when you flick through the TV coverage [of the nominations], it’s her image they use above everything else,’ Gatfield added. ‘She’s made a bigger impact than even her record sales would dictate.’ Not that Amy should or would be getting carried away. ‘Getting so many nods, it doesn’t mean your career is going to take off,’ warned Giant Step co-founder and CEO Maurice Bernstein, whose music and lifestyle marketing company handled the grassroots o
utreach for Back to Black. ‘But this was hands down the best album of 2007. Nothing album-wise has come out that has touched it from start to finish; the quality of sounds, the soul.’

  Then came the inevitable discussion about whether Amy would make the award ceremony. The Charlotte Observer kicked off the discussion, asking, ‘Now that the Grammy nominations have been announced, the big question is whether British songstress Amy Winehouse will actually make it to the awards ceremony. It’s looking unlikely unless she gets help soon.’ The writer pleaded directly to Amy: ‘Don’t be like Britney at the VMAs and embarrass yourself at the Grammys. You’re more talented than that.’

  Those behind the Grammy’s were naturally very keen indeed to see Amy appear at the ceremony. ‘I’d hate to see technicalities prevent creativity from happening on the stage,’ said Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. ‘I think it talks about the strength and the excellence of her music and the way that it’s received by our membership.’

  Word soon came from Amy that she would of course be attending. The whole Grammys news was music to her ears, because she’d recently had to cut short a UK tour in upsetting circumstances.