"Just a few hours ago, one of the world’s most talented musical artists was laid to rest, as the funeral service for Amy Winehouse took place in London. Amy Winehouse had only spent about seven years as a professional musician but her contribution to popular music already places her very near the top of her business.Her two albums, “Frank” and “Back to Black,” sold more than four million copies. She won a total of 23 music industry awards, including five Grammys. It’s estimated that over the last three years, she made almost $20 million from recording and performing and all in such a short space of time.
I saw her twice and she had a voice that harked back to previous eras, somehow combining Motown, Soul and Jazz but all in modern form. Her tone was smoky, burnished with an old single malt whiskey – brought to fruition at an incredibly young age.
It was her sound, but sadly, it also became her life. She was a drinker, who by her own admission “didn’t know when to stop.” Her parents talked openly about her drug use and her father once claimed that smoking crack-cocaine had given her emphysema – a debilitating condition for anyone, but imagine its impact upon a woman whose work relied upon her lungs and voice.
There has been some helpful discussion about addictive behavior and how all of us need to understand that many such people are not criminals but are seriously ill and in need of care and support. But if you listen carefully to the lyrics that Amy Winehouse wrote – there is a universal theme that almost proved too difficult for her to bear – that happiness never lasts; that love, as she put it so expertly, is a losing game.
Amy Winehouse’s music was profound because she confronted some of the starkest truths of our existence. That’s some contribution and all in such a short space of time. Amy Winehouse was just 27 years of age when she passed away on Saturday."
Amy Winehouse - Live At Glastonbury Festival 2008
