# BREAKING NEWS: Amy Winehouse, 27, found dead at her London flat



## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Amy Winehouse dead: Found dead at her London flat | Mail Online

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sh...ead_At_Home_In_Camden,_London,_Police_Confirm


"Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London, it has been reported.
The Back To Black singer was apparently found at the property in by emergency services at 3.54pm this afternoon, according to sources, and her death is being treated as 'unexplained' by police.

"


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## Jeff B. (Feb 20, 2010)

Unfortunate, but sadly not really unexpected. Another member of the 27 club.


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

what a shame! - she was a great talent


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Addiction, to anything, can be devastating. She could never break free from the demons. Had a great voice


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Saddened here too. I really hoped she would make it. What a mess her life was! Another huge talent wasted. RIP Amy. Hope you Finally found Peace.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

*The 27 Club*

Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse. The 27 Club. Sad.


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## Metal#J# (Jan 1, 2007)

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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

Its to bad that her husband couldn't be charged with contributing to her demise, she was clean proir to meeting him, a very sad wasted talent that had a beautiful voice.ship
while I appreciate everyones opinion unless you have ever suffered from addiction its real easy to critisize what you can never understand


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Ship of fools said:


> Its to bad that her husband couldn't be charged with contributing to her demise, she was clean proir to meeting him, a very sad wasted talent that had a beautiful voice.ship
> while I appreciate everyones opinion unless you have ever suffered from addiction its real easy to critisize what you can never understand


 I agree. Just imagine how her family must feel knowing that she could never break away from him or the drugs. Sad.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

smorgdonkey said:


> I agree. Just imagine how her family must feel knowing that she could never break away from him or the drugs. Sad.


Reminds me of Whitney Houston and that Thug Bobby Brown. He basically destroyed her career


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Metal#J# said:


> What a waste..........of a thread.
> 
> I'm sure some of those people that are currently dying/dead from starvation in Africa have/had good voices as well.
> 
> Why feel sad for an overindulging junkie?


I can only shake my head at that ignorant analogy. I suppose I shouldn't feel empathy for homeless crack addicts either?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

As I keep repeating, the entertainment industry thrives on people with character flaws and adjustment difficulties. Part of that is because well-adjusted people are more likely to say "I don't need this crap. Not worth it to me." and walk away. Less well-adjusted folks are also more susceptible to the cavalcade of sychophants that surround them, praise them for all the wrong things, and make money off them (and we need look no farther than Michael Jackson to see how that works). Finally, the entertainment industry wants and needs the risk-taking and impulsive behaviour of such individuals in order to keep them in the public imagination. It's a bummer, but frankly, I'm surprised this girl lived as long as she did.


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## Duster (Dec 28, 2007)

No surprise that she ended up this way. I can't imagine anyone's surprised.

And to me, that's the saddest part of all this. There are all these folks mourning and feeling upset at her passing, while they watched her suicide in slow motion. They knew it was coming, but they kept right on watching anyway. If you actually cared what was going to happen to this girl, you would have stopped paying attention to all this a long time ago.

The fact is, this is why people were attracted to her - the self destructive behaviour. It was "tragic" or "funny" or "interesting", or "dramatic". The fact is, everyone likes a freakshow, and that's what Winehouse has been about. She had two records. The last one was in 2006. Maybe 4, 5 hit songs?

Anyone who says she's famous because she has a great voice and was enormously talented, is being false. There are hundreds of people who are talented and have great voices, but they don't stumble off a stage in Belgrade during their European tour, so they're not very interesting.

I feel some sympathy, because someone's daughter is dead, and that's always a personal tragedy for someone. But I don't know her or them, so I'm not going to pretend that it really pulls on my heart strings. I have close friends and family dying at the moment - it would be wrong to say I'm saddened by this.

The fame and attention likely only fed her addiction and bad behaviour, and contributed to her destruction. For all those who continued to watch her as she disintegrated, I'd ask yourselves honestly, what you found so interesting about it. This happens over and over, and will continue to happen. One day Charlie Sheen will be in the news for the same reason, and people will act sad because of the squandering of talent.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Duster said:


> The fact is, everyone likes a freakshow, and that's what Winehouse has been about. She had two records. The last one was in 2006. Maybe 4, 5 hit songs?
> 
> Anyone who says she's famous because she has a great voice and was enormously talented, is being false.



She was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 2003 for FRANK and won five Grammys for BACK TO BLACK. All the substance abuse crap happened after that! 

By the time that hit the fan she had already established herself as a great talent and she was largely responsible for reviving the soul scene in the UK in the last decade. 

You are painting her career with a very broad brush stroke.


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## Andy (Sep 23, 2007)

Between this thread and the Lady Gaga one, I'm shocked by the staggering amount of ignorance displayed here lately. The girl was immensely talented, and became famous from the worth of her music, not a manufactured image. Shouldn't we as musicians applaud that? The drug abuse came later, only a side effect of her stardom, not the cause of it.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Andy said:


> Between this thread and the Lady Gaga one, I'm shocked by the staggering amount of ignorance displayed here lately. The girl was immensely talented, and became famous from the worth of her music, not a manufactured image. Shouldn't we as musicians applaud that? The drug abuse came later, only a side effect of her stardom, not the cause of it.


What Andy said...


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

i don't personally know many celebrities. but i know a hellofalotta people with addiction problems of one kind or another. the thing that's hard to remember about them while they're busy pissing you off by doing the dumb shit that they do, is that the addiction is usually a by-product of another problem. mental and emotional disorders abound, and some of them are only now seeing any sort of wide spread awareness or attention/understanding or something. you can't "fix" an addict without dealing with what ever issue is causing the addiction.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

Actually in 2008 she was denied a visa to travel to the US due to her drug arrest where she was nominated for 5 grammy and she won all five, and her drug abuse was a product of her ex husband who is still in jail and should rot there> She was a great talent along with many others who died from abusing themself and to say that she doesn't deserve the ackylades that folks are giving her, well thats up to you. But I am saddened that we couldn't fix this one either. I have lost very many ( freinds ) folks to drugs in my life.
Not sure where Duster feels that she was not talented ( I wonder how many grammy he might have ) and that we are being false but thats on him.ship


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## Duster (Dec 28, 2007)

Ship of fools said:


> Actually in 2008 she was denied a visa to travel to the US due to her drug arrest where she was nominated for 5 grammy and she won all five, and her drug abuse was a product of her ex husband who is still in jail and should rot there> She was a great talent along with many others who died from abusing themself and to say that she doesn't deserve the ackylades that folks are giving her, well thats up to you. But I am saddened that we couldn't fix this one either. I have lost very many ( freinds ) folks to drugs in my life.
> Not sure where Duster feels that she was not talented ( I wonder how many grammy he might have ) and that we are being false but thats on him.ship


Folks, read my post again, and let me know where I said that she isn't talented. Hell, I even had the generosity to call Charlie Sheen talented.

My point is that her talent was not the basis of her massive popularity. She isn't popular because she was nominated for a Mercury Prize. She isn't well known because she won 5 grammies. She's well known, famous, popular, etc., because of all the other crap - the freakshow.

Several people are nominated for a Mercury every year. They're all talented. Several people win Grammies every year. They're all talented. But they don't get the attention she got. Have you asked yourself why that is?

Quick, without Googling it - name the nominees for this year's Mercury prize. 

--- D


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

duster has a point-
im into music, all kinds of it
but i never knowingly heard of this girl until she started screwing up.
if ive got blinders on, i dont know how they got there.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Duster said:


> My point is that her talent was not the basis of her massive popularity. She isn't popular because she was nominated for a Mercury Prize. She isn't well known because she won 5 grammies. She's well known, famous, popular, etc., because of all the other crap - the freakshow.
> 
> 
> 
> --- D


The freak show was just a side show. Her big album was iconic and her fame flowed deservedly from that. It was about the music; the rest, noise.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

There is no doubt that all the nonsense put her name into the face of tons of people that may not have otherwise known who she was. I had heard that song "rahab" probably a 1000 times on thje radio over at the shop, never knew who it was. Then last Christmas my son popped in a live DVD of one of her shows and I watched it. Clearly she had talent, a lot of it. I enjoyed the concert a lot. 

Addiction is a terrible thing. The only real one I have ever had in my life is smokes, and trying to get off those I dont' wish on my worst enemy. So I know inside that if I was a drinker or got into drugs that I would be in trouble. I never had much of a taste for either one and the crowd I grew up with were the same. So I can only imagine what she was going through or what any person with addictions of that nature go through.

The other facinating part of this is that with all the people around her, and even now you read all these tributes from other stars and friends and family. How could it be that someone that seemingly had so many powerful and influential friends and associates, allow this to happen. Allow her to be left alone to destroy herself? They come forward now, too late.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

> The other facinating part of this is that with all the people around her, and even now you read all these tributes from other stars and friends and family. How could it be that someone that seemingly had so many powerful and influential friends and associates, allow this to happen. Allow her to be left alone to destroy herself? They come forward now, too late.


i used to go out with a girl who was a lot younger than me- she and her friends were doing ecstacy or however you spell it.
i did acid and mushrooms when i was her age- i could jump around and scream my head off for days at a time, i figured it was an age thing.
when they started smoking crack, i stopped seeing her.
at that point she was 23, owned her own house, and ran a pretty nice business-
nice car, nice stuff, nice life. smart girl.
after a while she was homeless- took maybe 6 months
she started calling me to come get her, and id take a cab out there, but then shed refuse to leave.
and then she died.

you cant help someone who doesnt want to be helped.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## Metal#J# (Jan 1, 2007)

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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

We knew it was going to happen sooner or later, we've seen it before. But it's still a shock, when you realize how much music still to be had, how much talent that we now won't have the opportunity to see or hear. She has already been an influence to the music scene in the UK and will continue to influence the music world, much like the other members of the so called '27 Club'. Too bad most people see only the not so good aspect of her life. RIP Amy. Thanks for the music.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I suppose it's inevitable that someone will pick a RIP thread to share their views on addiction.Personally I'm no more surprised than most that Amy died in this manner, but regardless of that, I think she was a talented singer with a lot of potential, and I'm saddened that she wasn't able to rise above her problems.


RIP Amy.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

1) When a person is passionately involved in what they do, and it makes them profoundly happy, it's a joy to behold, and somewhat contagious. Whatever other issues Ms. Winehouse had, she clearly enjoyed doing what she did very well, and you hate to see someone lose an opportunity to achieve that kind of contentment.

2) Nothing particularly "magic" or Bermuda-trianglish about age 27. It is simply an age by which many people have often hit their stride (though not necessarily their peak potential) in their avocation, and an age at which they have all the control over their lives that they didn't have when they were 14, but still harbour much of the recklessness they had at 19. I.E., there is the potential to screw up big.

3) Many of the statements made here about addiction strike me as incorrect. There ARE personal choices to be made when it comes to drug dependencies. I am often reminded of the late Ray Charles. In a rather lengthy article and interview in Rolling Stone some 25 years ago, Charles recounted how he got off heroin. He simply decided and stopped. He was in an institution at the time, and his cessation was so abrupt and uneventful that they were certain he was smuggling more heroin in somehow. So, it CAN happen that people decide, and stop. But at the same time, the reaction of the folks confining Charles reflects how seldom that actually happens.

We've had a discussion abut OCD here recently. Personally, I figure that by about the 6th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), a wide array of personal difficulties, encompassing, OCD, gambling, internet-porn addictions, legal and illegal drug dependencies, habitual risk-taking, dyslexia, ADHD, eating disorders, anger management, kleptomania and several other criminal behaviours, and a number of sexual weirdnesses, will all come under the general banner of impulse-control difficulties. Not that these are all identical, but they share a common feature of someone reacting quickly, and without self-restraint or reflection, to an impulse or emotion or feeling. "Addictions" are essentially instances of individuals experiencing a feeling, and wanting it to go away quickly, adopting some particular behaviour to do so, and ignoring other contingencies or valued outcomes in their lives.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

I think this thread was meant to inform those that didn't know that she passed. 

Ultimately it doesn't matter how or why. She was a great talent and I personally know people who were touched by her music. 

Many flirt with danger and manage to walk away (Evan Dando, Keith Richards) others continue to battle (Courtney Love, Steven Tyler) and others lose the fight (Amy Winehouse, Nick Drake, Janis Joplin).

The tragedy is that we will no longer be touched by their music and the lesson for us is that fame and money do not make us any happier.

RIP


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

I have both her records. She was interesting musically but I never really grabbed ahold of what everybody else seemed to see - there's so many talented people out there and if I want to listen to female soul/jazz I tended toward Ms. Costello, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, etc.

I'd have to agree that it was more the "sideshow" that kept her in the public eye. 2 recordings, the last over 5 years ago, is not enough to hold anyone's attention for long in the music business.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Duster said:


> Hell, I even had the generosity to call Charlie Sheen talented.



he may be all messed up now, but imo, "hotshots" was comedy gold. granted, alot of the funny in that film had nothing to do with him. but lots of it did.


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