Amy Winehouse had the life of a hero. She was born in London, England on September 14, 1983. Amy Winehouse started her music career at an age of 16. She is considered a hero because she managed to break forth in her music career from a no body to becoming one of the best recording artists to have lived. She won five Grammy Awards for her 2006 album Black and Black, and she is remembered all round the world for her hit songs like “Rehab”, “Black to Black” and “Valerie” (Hamad, 2017).
Even though she started from a small beginning her breakthrough came after being expelled and one of her friends give her demo to the recording label he was working with and Amy seized her first deal. This led to her rise in the music industry as she started off with her first album “Frank” which she released in 2003. The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize among other awards. This was just but the beginning of her numerous awards she was to be nominated. In the year 2008, she was awarded with Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, the Song of the year, record of the year and the best pop vocal album of the year.
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Amy was a once-in-a-lifetime talent since her music really inspired so many upcoming artists and she left a powerful and legendary legacy behind showing and giving hope to those who are talented but are poor to know that they can also make it in life so long as they keep on working on their dreams. She even started her own label whereby she took her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, to be the first artist on the label.
Aristotle said a hero must have a flaw, and to Amy Winehouse her flow was her addictive personality (Campbell, 2009). After releasing her album “Frank” in 2003, she started developing a reputation as unstable party girl. She started going to her events while drunk to the point that she could not even perform a whole set. She also had an on-off relationship with music video assistant Blake Fielder who admitted to have introduced Winehouse to hard drugs.
As the marriage unraveled, she became even more addict to drugs and alcohol ("Aristotle: Elements of Greek Tragedy," 2013). This was shown through her constant consumption of drugs and her ever drunk presence whenever she went out to her performances. Further, there were cases of not only verbal but also physical abuse between the couple. They used to even fight and exchange words in public while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Even though they fought so many times in public, they still had a secret romantic affair that was centered on drugs.
Later on Amy was taken to rehab. Even though it was not easy at first, she had to start watching her level of drug use. When her management tried to introduce the idea, she left them and decided to sign up with another agency. She also had problems in her family since the husband had been arrested severally for cases of assault. In one of the concerts she was to perform she appeared seemingly intoxicated and some of the crowd responded with boos and walk-outs. She later on cancelled all her concerts and public appearances for the rest of the year 2007, citing that it was “doctor’s orders”. She kept on winning awards even though she was still undergoing rehabilitation.
Just like a tragic hero, Amy Winehouse’s life went on downhill. Apart from being addicted to drugs, her personal health also was deteriorating at an alarming rate. She had a bad eating habit and the doctors said that because of her personality, it was hard for them advise her because she always wanted to do things her own way. It reached a point she was warned that if she does not stop smoking crack she would end up walking with an oxygen mask everywhere. By the end of 2008, her marriage had completely dissolved after her husband was sent a drug rehabilitation center for long-term treatment after pleading guilty to assault and obstruction charges. Winehouse begun an extended stay in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia where she had allegedly met another lover. On the other hand the husband was also connected to a model Sophie Schandorff from Germany. Later on in 2011, Winehouse died at the age of 27, from accidental alcohol poisoning.
All though Amy’s life ended on a low note, she had a recognition to her fans. She is remembered more for her talent than for her addiction. This is show through the continuous rising sales of her albums in the United Kingdom even though she had issues with drug addictions. People still listened to her music even though her personal life was not in order. Amy made an effort to correct her life through going for rehabilitation. Through the awards she has received, Amy is seen to be a great musician who is so talented to receive a total of 23 awards and a total of 60 award nominations ("Grammy Awards," n.d.). Amy is a hero to many since she did not allow her personal struggles to limit her from doing what she does best and this is evident through the awards received and the number of times she toped the billboards.
References
Aristotle: Elements of Greek Tragedy. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy , 132-137. doi:10.1002/9781118351222.wbegt0780
Campbell, L. B. (2009). Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511702112
Grammy Awards. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of African American Society . doi:10.4135/9781412952507.n289
Hamad, H. (2017). Introduction: farming fame, memorialising Amy Winehouse, and recuperating Salman Khan. Celebrity Studies , 8 (2), 344-345. doi:10.1080/19392397.2017.1311626
