I’m playing Amy’s poignant Back to Black as I write this.
We have read so much about Amy Winehouse’s untimely death in the last week, there is very little to add. Death is always a sharp reminder of our own mortality, of leaving behind broken hearted loved ones to grieve who wish they could have done more.
Amy’s early death reminded me of my dear friend Sue who died from drink, as well as three other friends too, all decent people with personal torments who were were far too young to die. They didn’t cover their bodies with tattoos like Amy, they were all intelligent and amusing and I felt helpless as I watched their decline, their inability to fight their “demons”. In Amy’s case this was a toxic cocktail of fame, personal wealth to feed her habits, a broken heart we are told, feelings of worthlessness; all this on top of her addiction to drink and drugs.
Would Amy’s death had been so shocking had it been a male rock star? I don’t think so. It seems so much worse when it happens to a woman.
I wonder what difference there is between Amy’s death and that of Marilyn Monroe’s overdose, and soprano Maria Callas’s early death, which many have said was the result of unrequited love after Aristotle Onassis’ marriage to Jackie Kennedy.
These are very different women, all wonderfully talented in different ways, yet all emotionally fragile all with unhappy love lives and feelings of inadequacy, who all purportedly self-destructed to a greater or lesser degree, and sadly, all died too young.
UPDATE: Many thanks to Anna Raccoon for her link to this post on her blog.
I remember your post about your dear friend Sue, Ellee. I don’t think men were involved in poor Amy’s death but she obviously was searching for love. Callas, I’m sure, did die of rejection and heartbreak. You make an interesting point about it being more shocking when it happens to a woman. It probably is but I don’t really know why it should be. I was very shocked, too, by the callous comments that some people were making on twitter when the news came through last weekend. Haven’t these people got any compassion?
“These are very different women, all wonderfully talented in different ways, yet all emotionally fragile all with unhappy love lives and feelings of inadequacy”
Good post, Ellee. I think people underestimate emotional challenge. Today I think if you are less than happy and are struggling people expect some medication to fix you like adding sugar to a bitter taste. Unfortunately there are readily available sweeteners that we, as a culture, self-medicate with. Alcohol is promoted all the time in conversation as a normal adult treat and answer to bad days and stress. I can’t imagine losing my child. Awful.
There are many who have/had addictions to alcohol or drugs and all for personal different reasons that others often speculate on but don’t truly know anything. lt remains personal to the person with the addiction.
The cause of her death is suffering from the same speculation … although for different motives. Will the toxiology results change this? … l doubt it.
She had true talent and is a sad loss.
It wasn’t a surprise though, was it.
Amy left a long while ago and that’s the tragedy of it. She was a beautiful girl once.
I do worry that, because of her effortless talent, she was able to perform whilst high which is an undeniably ‘cool’ thing to be able to do and that she will be held up as a symbol of ‘cool’ in perpetuity because of her substance abuse.
I feel sorry about what happened to Amy Winehouse. She is such a talented artist and many would die to have such huge talent like hers. It is just so sad that she wasted everything with drugs and alcohol. If only she invested her time into more fruitful efforts, she could have gone a long way. But then, what’s done is done. We just have to pray for her soul that she would already have peace within. 🙂
It’s too bad that she was actually trying to quit her “demons”. It said she died from complications from quitting and that is quite sad.