The Inevitable Amy Winehouse Entry

WARNING: IF YOU ARE AT ALL SYMPATHETIC TO THE CASE OF AMY WINEHOUSE’S DEATH, GET A GRIP.

Obviously, it’s the big news story. Amy Winehouse has died. You can tell it’s a big news story because you hear about it over Facebook or Twitter. I honestly, don’t really care. Well, maybe that’s unfair. I suppose I do. It does at least give prominence to the fact that many music artists can indeed succeed through addictions to dangerous drugs and the like. Oh, what brilliant role models we make as a country! At least there hasn’t been an international tragedy that may be overlooked by the pig ignorant this week though.

Wait a minute. There has. There has been a deep tragedy in Norway. A suspected religious fundamentalist - I will point out that it is a suspected Christian fundamentalist before the torrent of abuse against people of Islamic faith begins – has decided to brutally murder over 90 people near Oslo, the nation’s capital. I fear, however, that because this is a non-English speaking country, many of you won’t care quite so much as the situation of the dead Brit in Zante or anything similar. Obviously, those are still tragic examples of the evil that men do in this horrible word of ours, and I don’t wish to insult the people whom this affects acutely, but the ordeal in Norway is definitely one of the biggest issues we have faced since 9/11. I’m not trying to be melodramatic, but it is. It shows that Islamic Fundamentalism has risen to a point where Christian extremism has had to rear its ugly head in rebuttal. Luckily it appears that these are one man’s lone opinions expressed in the worst possible way, but I foresee a horrible BNP-esque press cover up of the fact that this was so.

But, I digress. Fundamentalism and the media is something I will save for my dissertation. What really has pissed me off about this whole issue is the fact that merely a month or two ago she was a laughing stock, devoid of all respect for ridiculous performance in (I believe) Serbia. For those of you who haven’t seen or heard about this gig, she came out and gave the most amateur display of professionalism I have ever seen. It was disgraceful. I have never in my life been so thoroughly unimpressed by a musical performance as when I watched this awful clip, and I’ve seen some pretty poor acts in my time. So, nobody liked or respected her and rightly so. But I can almost guarantee that come tomorrows charts, or at the very least, next weeks’ we will see Amy atop of them. It may be based somewhat on her talents, but I do feel that ‘Rehab’ may be slightly distasteful given it’s lyrics and apparent forewarning, and let’s face it, that was her best (and only good?) song. Funny really, seems death is the best way to get respect….