It’s official—Amy Winehouse has gone back to black. The singer is now more known for her struggles with drug addiction than for her hauntingly beautiful lyrics and sultry, soulful voice, and has just canceled her current European tour after a disastrous first show in Belgrade. This is yet another setback in Winehouse’s troubled career, which has taken quite a beating over the years due to her battles with drugs and alcohol, depression, and the hazards of love. These are the very themes that made her 2006 album Back to Black so powerful and brilliant; they’re also the themes that recently sent her down that dark downward spiral once more.
The June 19 concert got off to a bad start when Winehouse showed up to the stage an hour late. As you can see from the YouTube video below, it just got worse after that, with a lot of slurring and mangled lyrics and a face filled with confusion and despair. When she wraps her arms around herself, she looks so completely lost and vulnerable. And when she sings, “I cheated myself like I knew I would. I told you I was trouble. You know I’m no good,” you can tell that, sadly, she really believes it.
This footage breaks my heart, but it also makes me really angry. Where are her handlers? What kind of manager would let her take the stage in this condition? Who thought it was a good decision to send her on her first big tour in years just one month after she did another stint in rehab? (A stint she prepared for by drinking a small bottle of vodka on the way to the facility, by the way.)
It’s just like when Britney Spears did the first of her comeback tours after having a public meltdown. Remember that? The shaved head, the battered paparazzi car, the no-underwear photos, the partying with Paris Hilton? Her management team responded by taking her out of the public eye for a little while; then it sent her on a huge tour for which she was mentally, physically, and emotionally unprepared. As a result, Britney was booed onstage and ridiculed by the press—how do you think that helped her mental state?
I feel for Amy Winehouse right now. After so many instances of her being a mess in public and having her inner demons exposed for all to see and judge, finding the strength to forge ahead and continue fighting for survival must seem that much harder. I feel for her fans, who keep rooting for her, knowing that her talent is still there, though buried deep. I feel for Britney, who hasn’t seemed happy performing since she was in her early twenties and who probably wants nothing more than to spend time with her kids and her man and to be left alone.
This is not to say that these women don’t have agency in their situations. They chose to be musicians and, at one point, to live their lives in the public eye. But with fame comes people eager to take advantage and profit—even if that means pushing a drug-addled and mentally unbalanced woman to perform in front of an audience of thousands. The people these stars hired are supposed to watch out for them, not create situations that encourage their problematic behaviors. Someone gave the okay for Winehouse to perform on June 19. That someone deserves a little backlash, too.
Hopefully, Winehouse will take this tour break as an opportunity to break ties with the people in her life who lead her toward bad decisions and to concentrate on getting better. And here’s hoping all of the troubled musicians out there—Amy, Britney, and whoever else is on tap to become the next train wreck—find their way out of the black and back to good health.
