Amy Winehouse’s Show Last Night: Disaster Or Only A Semi-Disaster?

noah | November 15, 2007 2:00 am
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Amy Winehouse’s tour of her home country kicked off last night, and if reports are to be believed, she sort of botched the whole thing, inspiring boos and walkouts; she not only stumbled around the stage and changed every reference to a man into a shout-out for her currently incarcerated husband, she referred to those who dared catcall her as “a mug for buying a ticket.” But there was one reviewer who decided to show a little sympathy to the beleaguered songstress, and who actually posted that the performance’s completely shambolic nature was, actually, the true artist’s aura coming out of Winehouse. Take it away, Helen Brown of the Telegraph!

It is not hard to see why Back to Black is the best selling album of 2007 as she growls and slurs through hit after hit such as Me and Mr Jones and Rehab.

The covers are less successful: she’s indifferent on a version of Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wap: That Thing; Valerie is a slurred blur and she wrecks Sam Cooke’s Cupid by yelling off key.

Back on homegrown territory, she dedicates her album’s title song to her husband, singing: “Blake, I love you much” and wiping back tears.

She may sing “My odds are stacked” with a desolate crack in her voice and her head in her hands, but her talent hopefully stacks them in her favour for the rest of this tour.

After all, if you pay to hear Winehouse live, you pay to hear an artist with real emotional honesty, not a glossy “same in every town” pop act.

When it comes to frankness, and unpredictable emotional whack, I doubt Winehouse knows how to disappoint.

Yes, I would say that shelling out that much money to see someone who obviously is in no shape to stand up, much less perform, is pretty wack. Oh, wait, you were spelling it the other way? Oh.

Troubled Amy Winehouse puts on a good show [Telegraph] [Photo: WENN]