Amy Winehouse

"Winehouse sings in Spain, glass of wine in hand
July 4, 2008, 4:57 PM EST
ARGANDA DEL REY, Spain (AP) -- Soul diva Amy Winehouse sipped from a glass of red wine and looked a bit unsteady on her feet as she appeared in front of a large audience at the Rock in Rio music festival southeast of Madrid on Friday.

Then, as tens of thousands cheered, she threw off a pair of high stiletto heels in favor of white moccasins, donned a white electric guitar and settled into an intense rendition of some of her best known songs, including "Rehab."

Winehouse delivered a strong vocal performance accompanied by her octet plus two male backing vocalists.

There was no hint of the controversy that saw the Grammy-winning singer scuffle with a fan at the Glastonbury festival in Britain and show up an hour late looking the worse for wear last May in Portugal.

The singer won five Grammy Awards, including best record, best song and best new artist, in early February, but her musical success has been overshadowed by her tumultuous private life and public struggles with drugs and alcohol.

Last month, her father said she developed emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine, although her spokeswoman has said Winehouse only has pre-emphysema symptoms.

Once finished at Rock in Rio, she did not stay for an encore and left the outdoor concert venue by helicopter.

Winehouse's manager, Michael Jobson, told national broadcaster RTVE that the singer had looked forward to singing in Madrid after appearances in Portugal and Hyde Park, London."

Ok so here's my problem with Amy Winehouse and everyone glamourizing this woman deadset on killing herself. Besides the fact that she was filmed smoking crack and making racist rants (here in America an incredible number of multi cultural people love this woman's music....their dollars helped make her rich) she decides to be racial. Personally to me she looks, acts and sounds like "trailer trash" and I am really baffled as to why she is even famous. I tried listening to her once, because I wanted to see what the hype was about her, and couldn't understand a damn thing this woman was saying.

So being a crackhead isn't enough...racist rants about the very people that lined your pocketbooks isn't enough, now we have to continue to perpetuate the alcohol and drug problem by jumping onstage with a drink in hand!

Here is what has been driving me crazy about musicians (especially those that continually live in the limelight). One little slip-up and the entire world knows, yet also knowing that the younger audiences are already fascinated with "living on the edge" i.e., drugs, drinking, partying, stealing, criminal activities, our wonderful musicians continue to be persuasive to their younger fans (you know they automatically become role models whether they want to or not) and fails to realize that their every action is being emulated by the youth.

It is bad enough to have people like Lindsay Lohan continue to be a public alcoholic menace. Bad enough that Winehouse continues to stay in the news for her alcoholism and drugs. Bad enough that Spears is STILL in the news. Why are we enabling this type of behavior in the first place? Why do we as consumers continue to line these idiot's pockets with our purchases and support? Shouldn't we show our children that there is more to life than being a public menace?

Continuous ads run daily about the outcomes of drinking and driving, yet Lohan is literally caught daily smashed out of her mind. "Just Say No" to drugs is plastered along billboards, yet we still idolize Winehouse as though she is some goddess. I will tell you what she is, she is hellbent on HER self destruction, another Spears wanting public attention. Well guess what? She will never get my dollar! She doesn't even get airplay in my house, I do not own one Amy Winehouse production and I NEVER will. Here is one BLACK person's dollar she will NOT bank on.

I am concerned about the morality of our people, everything in America seems to be one contradiction after another.