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RIP Amy
What a sad day. A talented musician plagued with a deep sadness that prevented her from successfully fighting her battle with drugs and alcohol passed away at the tender age of 27. As Tammy said, “She sang the blues so well because she knew it so well”.
It saddens me that so many people think “Oh well, she was a drug addict, it’s no surprise really and I don’t feel bad for her”. In my opinion, people don’t choose to be come drug addicts, there is something inside them that makes them feel the need to kill themselves slowly with harmful substances. I’m sure she didn’t wake up one day and say “I am going to start doing drugs for a bit of a laugh so that it makes me extremely sick and ruins my career”. She was a tormented soul who couldn’t deal with the fame and the horrific paparazzi who hounded her ceaselessly. Her outlet was drinking and taking drugs and it eventually killed her.
She was so extremely talented and until the addictions ravaged her, she was a gorgeous young woman who had a bright future ahead of her. If only singing about her woes had been enough to get her through the dark times. I try not to look at the photos of her where she is emaciated and a shadow of her former self, because that was not who she was. Instead I look at her in happier times and listen to her music and think about what could have been had she had the strength to pull through.
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I absolutely understand what you mean, and for a long time I felt the same about Amy Winehouse. I'd criticise her for wasting her talent with drugs and alcohol and make fun of her appearance in her music videos. It wasn't until a friend stopped me and explained I was being unfair on her, someone I didn't know and who was clearly having troubles that I didn't understand. She reminded me it wasn't my place to judge and that drug addiction is a disease and I was being unnecessarily cruel. From then on I have stopped looking at Amy from the media's perspective and hoped she would have the strength to recover. Sadly, it wasn't to be.
As for the press coverage of her death vs the mass killing in Oslo, that's just how media works, fair or not. She was famous so her death will generate a lot of publicity. Sure she was the one who brought about her own death, but she was a famous singer so she will attract a lot of attention. As for why I blogged about her instead of the shooting in Norway, I knew people would question this but as I blog about music, I felt I had more to say about Amy's death than those of those poor teenagers. Honestly, all I can say about the shooting was that it was a horrific tragedy and I wish people took all types of religious extremism seriously, not just those from the middle east. I hope justice is swift for that mad man and hope those poor families can recover eventually. I'm still thinking of posting a log about it anyway, but I want to make sure I say it well.