Amy Winehouse has the entire world dangling in front of her. If she weren't seeing double, trying to avoid jail, publicly fighting and smoking crack for YouTube audiences everywhere, she just might be able to reach out and grab it.
Incidentally, the troubled singer, who made her name in America for saying "no" to rehab on the first single of "Back to Black" (2006), entered a treatment facility just two weeks before her astonishing five Grammy wins. Winehouse tied the record for the most wins in one year by a female artist; "Rehab" even took home Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Winehouse is distinctly different from the majority of her fellow young Hollywood rehab-aholics in that she, to put it bluntly, actually has talent.
A music industry darling, Winehouse has received a slew of music awards ranging from MTV to NME, Elle to Vibe. She has simultaneously become a notable fashion icon and a muse of the incomparable designer Karl Lagerfeld -- she's got a body even Victoria Beckham would kill for (or at least starve herself for).
Nevertheless, Winehouse is most famous not for her soulful voice, impressive songwriting skills or even her distinctive fashion taste; it's her status as a tabloid fixture that makes her a household name and topic of conversation at slumber parties, dinner tables, and news stations alike. The world is fixated with this walking contradiction, even though the terms "superstar" and "burnout" have been married for decades.
In an age of constant media bombardment, celebrity is becoming more a curse than an achievement. Sure, being a teetering rock star is a fabulous life to live, but it's much better if it takes the Mick Jagger route as opposed to the Janis Joplin one.
Yes, Britney Spears Syndrome existed before Brit was even born -- even the silent film stars openly used cocaine before it was illegal. Rock fans would keel over if the Rolling Stones ever showed up on time and sober for a concert back in their heyday; in fact, they would probably feel they weren't getting their money's worth. Likewise, the Grateful Dead would have been just another failed rock band had it not been for the Acid Tests where Garcia and company gained fans in the midst of Kool-Aid, DayGlo, and a whole lot of LSD.
Truly, the sense of danger these artists evoke is probably what entrances the American public most, and, as our society plummets into the depths of reality TV and weekly tabloids, danger has taken on a whole new meaning. Keeping up with Britney has become the new keeping up with the Joneses, and as most of young Hollywood knows, it's no easy task.
The problem stems from the fact that tabloids reduce these wild stars to merely hard partiers, overlooking the veritable accomplishments of those with talent. After reading these magazines, it's almost scary to think that Amy Winehouse, despite being perpetually intoxicated and addicted to everything possible, has accomplished more in her short 24 years than many accomplish in a lifetime.
Raw talent and artistic merit are overshadowed by the gossiping headlines. Any song played on the radio becomes synonymous with the artist's current state of addiction or recovery, not merely just a good song. Of course, the stars realize this arrangement and proceed by making news instead of hits. The rest is history.
Yes, stars have always been unpredictable, addicted and wild, but only in today's world does the general public know beyond suspicion what exactly occurs in the 21st century Viper Rooms and Studio 54s. In today's internet-obsessed world, photographers, reporters and fans perpetually dog celebrities like never before. Stars of veritable talent are being placed alongside the likes of Paris Hilton and company who, despite possessing buckets of charisma, lack any artistic achievements.
Looking back at Winehouse and attempting to look past her disheveled public image, I sincerely hope she can pull herself together and return as the intelligent, wise, and sometimes wild artist Newsweek once called "a perfect storm of sex kitten, raw talent and poor impulse control." Us Weekly has claimed enough victims, and an artist of Winehouse's quality need not be one of them. There's a reason she all but swept the Grammys. Her work speaks for itself.
