By Alfred Branch, Jr.
Singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse has called it a year. Following months of emotional turmoil and bad press, the talented Winehouse has canceled all remaining concerts for the year, partly because she can’t bear to be without her currently jailed husband, Blake Fielder-Civil.
On her website, the troubled singer apologized to fans and laid out her reason for ending her tour.
“I can’t give it my all onstage without my Blake. I’m so sorry but I don’t want to do the shows half-heartedly; I love singing. My husband is everything to me and without him it’s just not the same,” she wrote.
Her doctor was also cited as an influence as to why she shut it down for the foreseeable future. “The rigours involved in touring and the intense emotional strain that Amy has been under in recent weeks have taken their toll. In the interests of her health and well-being, Amy has been ordered to take complete rest and deal with her health issues,” the site stated.
The remaining dates on her current tour were all in England and Ireland, and refunds for the remaining dates will be issued from the point of purchase.
While her latest album, “Back to Black” continues to rack up sales and plaudits, 2007 has not been very kind to Winehouse. Rampant reports of drug abuse have dogged the singer, prompting her father-in-law to call for a boycott of her shows and albums.
She was still named one of Entertainment Weekly’s entertainers of the year, but throughout 2007, Winehouse has been a target of the paparazzi, who gleefully turned the art of taking bad pictures of celebrities into a sport when it came to her. She even canceled several dates at the end of the summer due to her troubles.
Sir Elton John summed it up best in Entertainment Weekly, “’Back to Black’ was a phenomenal album. Her voice just completely blew me away. I’ve seen her live, and she is the real deal, although she sometimes can be hit-and-miss depending on how out of it she is. It’s like Nina Simone and Van Morrison: You don’t know what you’re going to get. You don’t know if it’s going to be a little off or if it’s going to be electrifying. The only thing that’s going to stop Amy is herself.”
Winehouse’s family has requested “that the media respect Amy’s privacy at this time. There will be no further comment” concerning the canceled gigs.
(The image accompanying this story is from MySpace.com)
