It probably was an OD, a tragedy waiting to happen for someone so dependent, so addicted to her cocktails of poison. She infused herself with drugs and alcohol as easily as she can breathe out a soulful tune so effortlessly. It is so sad to lose someone of so much talent by being a drug addict. Russell Brand said this about Amy and other addicts out there: "All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they're not quite present when you talk to them. They communicate to you through a barely discernible but un-ignorable veil. Whether a homeless smack head troubling you for 50p for a cup of tea or a coked-up, pinstriped exec foaming off about his ‘speedboat' there is a toxic aura that prevents connection. They have about them the air of elsewhere, that they're looking through you to somewhere else they'd rather be. And of course they are. The priority of any addict is to anesthetize the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief."
I, too, have lost a childhood friend due to drug addiction. We were in second year college when he ODed. We were able to visit him in the ICU at St Paul while he was comatose. Several classmates told us that when they visited John Mark, they were crying feeling sorry for him wanting him to come back to us. They said a tear fell from the corner of his closed eyes. The following morning, we heard they news, he's gone.
Amy Winehouse is a testament to what Bill Gates famously quoted (which I will rephrase): I wish everyone was rich and famous, so that they will know that that it will not bring them true happiness. Amy Winehouse was at the top of her game four, five years ago. She won five Grammy's and was tabloid trash for her tumultuous domestic life and her utterly destructive lifestyle. But how, when sober, can she wow audiences with her soulful and effortless contralto. She's one of those singers who can just stand there and sing. Just stand there and amaze you. No need to flap around like a chicken or climb up and down boxes or show off skin and abs to get attention like what Gaga, Britney or Keisha do. Few artists can do it like Amy Winehouse (read: a sober stonefree Amy Winehouse). Just stand there and sing: Adele, Duffy, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, our very own Kuh Ledesma, among others.
I'm one of Amy Winehouse's biggest fans and I would surely miss her. But her addiction ultimately led to her untimely but predictable demise. Many more artists will come and go and Amy, amazing as she is a singer/songwriter, was not able to establish herself as one of the greatest and given less than five years she will be forgotten. Like a haunting memory, I will be one of those who will not forget. Her music will live on like these few lines from her song Wake Up Alone:
If I was my heart
I'd rather be restless
The second I stop the sleep catches up and I'm breathless
This ache in my chest
As my day is done now
The dark covers me and I cannot run now
Her music will live on. Her demons are gone now. They've won, you see. There's no running now. It's over. The final curtain has dropped.
And so pass one of the greatest voices to ever have graced the airwaves in recent memory, Amy Winehouse. With all her talents and potential perhaps that is all she'll ever be. A memory.
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