Tragic Life Story of Amy Winehouse

 

I came across this documentary or movie ‘Amy’ (2015) and I watched it while skipping portions along the way. It shows the life story of English singer Amy Winehouse using archive footage and narrations by herself and her friends and family.

Amy Winehouse was born in England to Jewish parents in 1983. Her parents were not rich and they had later divorced. She was brilliant in music and took it up as career. She mentions that she had taken up music in order to be able to express the problems she faced (in her mind). Along the way, she started struggling with drugs abuse. She was in and out of “rehab”. She married a man who also used to do drugs and later he divorced her. She also made songs depicting her real-life events, like going to rehab or breakups or divorce. Her albums “Rehab” and “Back to Black” were massive hits. Her health kept deteriorating due to the drugs and unhealthy lifestyle she was living and in the end, she was warned by doctors to stop it or else she would die. She stopped drugs but took on alcohol and one day, she died of alcohol poisoning. Sometime before her death, she had gone on a live performance but did not sing and just sat on the stage, ruining the show for the production company and the audience. It can be understood that her final accidental death was a buildup of the things happening in her life up to that point. At the time she died, she was only 28.

The documentary film shows her life in a very personal manner and viewers can only sympathize with her. But at one point, I noticed that she told the reasons for her mental problems as: “Then she said her dad leaving her mum was what caused this, and her not really seeing her dad.” That was the beginning of her mental problems which drove her towards drugs.

At the same time, if we look at the lives of movie stars, singers or creative people, it seems as if a lot of them, if not most, indulge in drugs. It is common sense that drugs are “addictive” and once a person starts it, feels compelled to keep going on. At one point, when Amy Winehouse won Grammy Awards, she went backstage and told her friend that “all this (winning) does not seem as enjoyable without drugs”. That clearly showed the threat she was facing. From what I have read or seen in movies, creative people get a kind of extra boost to their creativity and imagination when they are drunk or on drugs, and that is what they seek whenever they feel out of ideas or inspiration. But, they need to think if it is really worth it. We all think too highly of our own creations and talent, but the fact is that this world is too bigger than us. If we do not create music, people will find something else to listen to. While our own unique creative contributions are important, but at what cost? This is why, talent is a double-edged sword and success is a great destroyer. 

Once you achieve what you wanted to, it does not feel same anymore. Then, you want more. And to keep seeking newer heights is a path of self-destruction in a way. 

To be so talented and then dying at such an early age can only be called tragic. While her music will remain forever, her life should be remembered as part of an anti-drugs and anti-alcohol narrative for young generations to come. Her mistakes were human and she was not incorrigible. I wish she was able to sort out her life before it was too late. 

Here is a portion of her handwritten song, as shown in this film: 

- Rahul Tiwary

P.S.: After writing this, I just realized that today is Amy Winehouse’s birthday. I had seen this documentary many days ago but got chance to write this piece only today. What a coincidence.