ScopiSadness - Amy Winehouse has gone to the big rehab in the sky

Once upon a time there was a little girl, and all she wanted to do was sing...

Say what you like about Amy Winehouse, she was a huge talent.  In her short time in the spotlight she shone so bright that she defined a whole genre of music, and ushered in a musical culture that gave us artists like Duffy, Paloma Faith, and of course the current star-of-the-moment, Adele.  But so often in music - in life, really - the brighter a star shines, the quicker it burns out. 

One night back in 2007, Amy did something she hadn't been able to do before, and something she never really could do since.  She walked onto a stage, held her head high and made even her harshest critics stand up and applaud.  Forgotten, for just a few moments, was the substance abuse, were the drugs.  Inside the performance she gave that night, there was no alcohol, no abusive husband, no media-circus court appearance.  And in the space of exactly 1 minute and 43 seconds, she proved to an awed audience that she was at her very core a true musician, and that whatever personal battles she faced nothing could take that away.

So in our minds, whenever we think back on who Amy Winehouse was, we won't be picturing the drunken tirades or the drug binges disguised as concerts.  We'll be remembering this quiet, sobering moment when everything else fell away, and Amy was just a 24 year old girl standing up on stage singing a song like no one else in the world could. 



Goodbye, Amy.  You'll be missed.