Amy Winhouse out-sings other female artists this year
Posted on August 27, 2007
While this summer was dominated by songs about umbrellas, chants about being your girlfriend and Fergie trading in songs about her hump to belting out sorry attempts at poetry like “I’m gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket,” one female artist rose on the charts and reminded the world that old styles can still be refreshing.
Britain’s own Amy Winehouse exploded into the mainstream American pop music universe with the soulful and autobiographical single “Rehab” and album, Back to Black while simultaneously giving contemporary music a wake-up call.
This unlikely combination - a pint-sized, 23-year-old Jewish girl from North London - is the best thing to happen to popular music in years, not to mention she is a total rock star. With pin-up girl tattoos as sleeves for her skinny arms and a well-known drug and alcohol addiction she sings about, rather than covers up, Winehouse has given even the hardest male rockers a run for their money.
Her gritty voice has been compared to powerhouses like Etta James and Back to Black is drenched with Motown throwbacks, hip-hop beats and a classic ’50s and ’60s doo-wop sound.
Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson has even gone as far to say the album is “one of the best recordings ever,” and sales reflect the statement. Her first album, Frank, was a huge success in England, as it not only went platinum but also landed her multiple award nominations and flattering comparisons to other prominent artists. After her sophomore album flew to number one in the U.K., Back to Black set the record as the highest debut entry for a British female artist in the U.S. and has enjoyed continued success.
But why is Winehouse so praiseworthy despite her constant and concert cancellations, suspicious weight loss, obvious alcohol issues — she has vomited in the middle of live performances or left the stage to do so on several occasions — and well-known drug involvement? She’s different.
While the American media is obsessed with female celebrities’ falls from pop culture royalty to pop culture trash — see Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, or any tabloid magazine — Winehouse throws them a curve ball. She’s not perfect, and she never pretended that she was. She sings about avoiding rehab and admits to her alcohol abuse. She wears her hair in a giant mess of a beehive, piled on her tiny head and is rarely seen without jet-black Cleopatra-like eyeliner swoops. Her weight fluctuates with her addiction and her style consists of either vintage dresses or wife beaters with jeans that don’t fit and no shoes. And beyond her appearance, she has hurled American pop culture yet another curve ball — she’s talented.
Once again, while the media salivates over top 40 songs with lyrics hardly ever written by the same artist who is singing them and watches in amazement as beautiful performers continue to become more popular and powerful, Winehouse has ambushed them all with intense and unrelentingly emotional lyrics delivered over actual music, not computer generated tones and drum beats, and still managed to tame the American pop culture monster successfully.
Her songs are thoughtful and interesting to listen to, unlike the mind-numbing and repetitive lyrics of her competitors.
Back to Black is like a story of human nature in which everyone can find a part to relate. Not to say everyone can relate to facing the prospect of entering rehab, but her potent accounts of cheating within a relationship, disappointment, depression, standing by the man she loves and in essence facing life as it approaches her are so genuine, it adds just another facet of her to love — she’s real.
Winehouse is the first of many female artists to be praised in this column, but certainly not the last. Her honesty in her delivery and appearance not only make her seem like a real and relatable person, but certify her as a rock star. Unashamed and unafraid she proves that amid the fluffy dance tunes about being “g-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s” and wearing lip gloss, there are still true artists at work and occasionally, you don’t have to look past the pop charts to find them.