Amy Winehouse

Whatever else you can say about Amy Winehouse; there is no doubting her talent. An incredible voice and a fantastic songwriter. I think we've lost the Billie Holiday of our generation.

Not really going to try to discuss her addictions/probable bulimia, but like Kurt Cobain before she was obviously a gifted but ultimately flawed and vulnerable person with a lot of demons to overcome. I think a lot of her fans (myself included) were mystified as to why Amy could not gain strength from this soaring talent (apparently she wrote Rehab within half an hour; she recorded Valerie in one take) and ditch the drug taking losers and sort herself out.

Russell Brand wrote a lovely tribute to her and addiction in general and I pretty much agree with every word. We also need to get away from this music industry idea that drugs are cool. The Beatles may have dabbled in drugs back in the sixties but it shouldn't be exaggerated; they were never high when they were in the studio. Amy Winehouse wrote and recorded Back to Black with Mark Ronson within a week when she was stone cold sober. Anyway. Back to the voice...