It feels like I am just too close to love you, Amy.
Back to Black.
Performing in blackface make-up was a theatrical convention of many entertainers at the beginning of the 20th century. Blackface make-up is having its origin in the minstrel show. Working behind a blackface mask gave the performer “a sense of freedom and spontaneity he had never known”. Is it possible this song from Any Winehouse is connected on a deeper level with this convention?
Al Jolson Black performance as Jewish act? And favorite of Amy?
According to film historian Eric Lott, for the white minstrel man “to put on the cultural forms of ‘blackness’ was to engage in a complicated affair of manly mimicry….
To wear or even enjoy blackface was literally, for a time, to become black, to inherit the cool, virility, humility, abandon, or gaité de Coeur that were the prime components of white ideologies of black manhood.”
Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was an American singer, film actor, and comedian. At the peak of his career, he was dubbed “The World’s Greatest Entertainer.”
His performing style was brash and extroverted.
He popularized numerous songs that benefited from his “shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach.”
Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart and others.
Dylan (also a Jewish singer) once referred to him as “somebody whose life I can feel.” Broadway critic Gilbert Seldes compared him to the Greek god Pan. He was claiming that Jolson represented “the concentration of our national health and gaiety.”
In the 1930s, he was America’s most famous and highest-paid entertainer.
Phil Spector influenced Amy.
One of her primary musical influences was the bizarre music producer Phil Spector. Spector began his career in 1958 as the producer and co-founder of the Teddy Bears, performing on guitar and vocals.
At the height of his career, he was a pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound, writing, co-writing, or producing for artists such as the Ronettes and the Crystals and, later, the Beatles, Leonard Cohen (a Jewish performer), Dion DiMucci, and the Ramones.
Spector.
Spector is often called the first auteur among musical artists for acting not only as a producer, but also the creative director, writing or choosing the material, supervising the arrangements, conducting the vocalists and session musicians, and masterminding all phases of the recording process.
He helped pave the way for art rock and various aesthetically oriented music genres, with numerous artists later citing his work as a significant influence.
The media and the bad girl.
“The bad girl with the pin-up tattoos, soul style, and Marilyn Monroe mole piercing was born to Mitchell and Janis. They were a Jewish couple in north London,”
“Not everyone is surprised to hear that Winehouse is Jewish. Referencing her Semitic-looking visage, Sarah Silverman once quipped, ‘She is Jewish, right? If she isn’t, someone should tell her face.’”
Dvora Meyers asserted that the singer’s “unrepentant behavior … signals Winehouse’s place in a very different line of Jewish women — not the ‘nice’ ones who make you chicken soup when you’re sick or assure their sons that they’re the smartest boys in the world, and any woman would be lucky to marry them.”
Instead, Meyers wrote, “Winehouse’s ancestors are the biblical vixens: Dina, who slept with Shechem; Deborah, the biblical heroine. More recently, Monica Lewinsky, the ‘portly pepperpot’ (as the New York Post dubbed her) who nearly ended Bill Clinton’s presidency.”
In January 2009, with hostilities raging between Israeli and Hamas forces. Winehouse was one of the several prominent Jewish figures identified by an Islamic extremist website as potential targets for “reprisal” attacks.
Her devil-may-care attitude extended to her live performances.
Even at her best, Winehouse shimmied awkwardly and endearingly as she sang onstage. Her doo wop-styled backup singers were far more at ease, nimbly dancing behind her. Winehouse herself was never quite ready for prime time.
They stopped doing it, but Amy never really stopped.
While the “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” exhibit, opening soon at London’s Jewish Museum, will show the public a different version of the singer’s life than the one we saw in the tabloids. Her brother has just come forward with a new angle on how she died.
While he doesn’t deny her row battle with drugs and alcohol, that isn’t what killed her, says Alex Winehouse. Instead, he claims, it was bulimia that led to his sister’s death. (The coroner’s inquest listed alcohol poisoning as the cause of death).
“She would have died eventually, the way she was going, but what killed her was the bulimia,” he told The Observer. “Had she not have had an eating disorder, she would have been physically stronger.”
According to Alex Winehouse, she developed bulimia in her late teens, when all of her friends were doing it.
“They’d put loads of rich sauces on their food, scarf it down and throw it up. They stopped doing it, but Amy never really stopped. We all knew she was doing it, but it’s almost impossible [to tackle], especially if you’re not talking about it.”
The singer’s physician, Dr. Christina Romete, said Winehouse also suffered from an eating disorder.
Alex Winehouse says he wanted to be a refuge for her from the strangeness of her celebrity. Alex describes visiting Amy occasionally at her Camden flat and seeing banks of photographers camped outside.
“She was almost shut in the house and couldn’t go anywhere,” he remembers. “I’d go home, back to normality. She didn’t have that. The interest that they had in her was insane. She didn’t want it, but her every moment was covered in the press.”
Part of him, too, feels that his recollections of Amy are “no one’s business because there are a lot of dramas associated with her and that still goes on. If I’m going to speak, it’s because I – or we, the foundation – are doing something cool. I’m not going to talk for the sake of talking.”
Winehouse wasn’t always a “bad girl.”
She once was a freshly scrubbed Jewish teen from northeast London. Back when she recorded her first album, “Frank,” at 19, she was curvier and wore her long dark hair in loose waves.
There was nary a tattoo in sight. True, she had been kicked out of a prestigious stage school (the same one that Adele attended) for getting her nose pierced. That’s hardly scaling the mountain of teenage rebellion.
Emerging British pop star Alex Clare is working to balance his Orthodox religious commitments with the demands of global celebrity. Clare began his career performing in bars and clubs in London where he met Amy Winehouse. For a time, he dated her.
Together with Cynthia Winehouse.
This younger Winehouse had been nurtured both artistically and religiously by her family. Her parents and paternal grandmother, Cynthia, who once dated the legendary musician Ronnie Scott, raised her on a steady diet of jazz greats and soul singers from Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald to Dinah Washington.
It was also Cynthia who hosted weekly Friday night dinners. Her death in 2006 is said to have precipitated her granddaughter’s downward spiral.
It was at this time that Winehouse entered the studio to record “Back to Black.”
She changed musical course on this album, veering away from the adult contemporary jazz sounds that had dominated “Frank” into darker musical terrain set, almost paradoxically, to the pleasant music of the ’60s American girl groups that had been helmed by Spector.
Under the Poppy cloak of the Ronettes’ sound from 40 years ago, Winehouse brought a thoroughly modern — and Jewish — sensibility to her lyrics and performances.
She spoke not of love and romance, as her predecessors did. She peaks about addictions, sex and every Jewish girl’s favourite emotion, guilt.
Her songs and tone dripped regretfully, but also the inevitability of her bad behavior.
Any astute listener knew that she probably wasn’t going to change.
Her fans held out hope, as did her family and perhaps even the troubled artist herself.
Ultimately, however, like an Old Testament prophet, she foretold her fate. On the titular track of her masterwork, she sang, “I tread a troubled track/My odds are stacked/I go back to black.”
Watching “Amy” is like riding a terrifying roller coaster, a sort of horror film as a documentary. You want to warn the heroine not to open that door.
But director Asif Kapadia’s searing documentary about Amy Winehouse, the late six-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, is gripping movie-making.
What the film is surprisingly lacking in, though, is anything beyond passing mentions of her bulimia. That segment transitions into an interview with someone working in the studio while Amy was recording Back to Black.
They recount that the (petite) singer ate a large meal, disappeared for 45 minutes, and returned with smeared make-up.
Some bathroom is snooping followed, which revealed that Amy had “redecorated the bathroom,” having vomited up what she’d just eaten.
This, the interviewee notes, was a point when she and others involved in the recording process realized something was wrong.
Rehab NO, NO, NO.
Amy had an aversion to the type of image rehab that many actors, singers, and politicians are forced to undergo to make them more palatable to the public.
Winehouse seemed immune to this kind of image meddling. As a Jewish woman raised in a strictly Orthodox community, she refused to be controlled if not to choose for transgressive behavior.
“Amy” does something unexpected: It takes a tragic and troubled singer and turns her into the Jewish girl next door. Using previously unreleased footage and music, the best documentary favourite looks beyond Amy Winehouse’s trademark hairdo and tabloid misadventures for a tender and unflinching examination of her personal life and inner demons.
Her ex-manager Nick, childhood friends Juliette and Lauren all tried desperately to help her. They were the only people in her life who said no to her, attempted to give her some tough love, and were there when she needed someone.
Is Amy like a little girl begging her father to notice her?
Or are some relationships just doomed? One of the most surprising parts of the documentary is Blake’s (ex-husband) revelation that he tried to cut himself when he was nine.
Amy Winehouse was as a private individual before she succumbed to massive media attention: the exhibition in Amsterdam.
The show, from February 29 to September 4 is seen in Amsterdam, is composed by Amy Winehouse’s brother Alex and The Jewish Museum in London.
A Family Portrait is under construction in the Jewish Historical Museum.
High expectations not only the exhibition was a success in London, but also in Tel Aviv, Vienna and San Francisco-he garnered much praise.
Expectations for Amsterdam are therefore high. As will be expected to be a success in Amsterdam.
Her music remains popular; every day is played on the radio and still sold a lot.
Also, from the high number of visitors to ‘Amy,’ the recently released documentary directed by Asif Kapadia, shows that she still has many fans.
The exhibition, which is curated by Amy Winehouse’s brother Alex and The Jewish Museum in London, shows how the singer was as a private individual before she succumbed to massive media attention.
“We were not religious, but traditional,” says Alex. “I hope the world gets to know the other side of Amy, who our typical Jewish family.”
Alex is an old school uniform of Amy’s favorite part of the exhibition. Whatever happens in life and how famous you are, according to him, it shows that you always come from somewhere “It does not matter what you do, you can not forget it because it made you who you are. And she never forgets that.“
The show focuses on Amy’s passion for music and fashion, but also to her Jewish family history and her school. Further attention is paid to London, especially Camden Town, where Amy lived for a long time.
Prayers and candles from the family.
Janis Winehouse said that the family will mark the anniversary quietly together with prayers and the lighting of a Yahrzeit candle.
Amy Winehouse, who was Jewish, died on July 23 at her London home. An autopsy showed that she died of alcohol poisoning. But not everyone agrees.
Her struggles with alcohol addiction persisted even after she stopped using illicit drugs in 2008.
Janis Winehouse said that she sometimes wakes up “sobbing” and that the grief “doesn’t get any easier.” (the grief for Cindy, her grandmother)
The magazine reported that Janis Winehouse wears a Star of David necklace that the singer wore as a child.
“She nibbled on it all the time, so it’s got many marks on it,” she told the magazine.
Amy, My Daughter.
Mitch Winehouse, the father of the late soul songstress Amy Winehouse, is writing a book about the singer.
It will be called “Amy, My Daughter” and is released by Harper Collins.
Father and daughter were tight throughout her life. In fact, Amy had “Daddy’s Girl” tattooed on her body.
Mitch Winehouse promises that the book will include childhood stories and anecdotes that preceded the singer’s meteoric rise to fame, as well as her well-documented struggles with addiction.
“I feel the need to write this book to tell the true story of Amy and to help with my personal recovery,” he explained.
The profits from the sale of the book will go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which was started in the singer’s memory to help disadvantaged children and young adults.
Amy Winehouse hologram tour is not happening.
If you thought rumors of a concert tour featuring a hologram version of the late Amy Winehouse seemed too good to be exact — or perhaps creepy — you would be correct.
The Sun reported that billionaire Alki David was planning to use 3-D computer technology plus an orchestra to bring the singer back on the stage.
The same high-tech method was used to resurrect murdered rapper Tupac Shakur for the Coachella festival in 2012.
Unfortunately for Winehouse fans, her dad, Mitch, who controls her image, made it very clear on Twitter they won’t get to watch her perform “live” anytime soon.
Sorry guys.
A life-size statue of Amy Winehouse erected in London for her 31 the birthday.
A life-size bronze statue of late British Jewish singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse is built in the London neighborhood where she lived.
The statue stands in a market in London’s Camden neighborhood, close to where she died. It shows Winehouse leaning against a wall with her hand on her hip.
“Now Amy will oversee the comings and goings of her hometown forever,” Winehouse’s father Mitch said. “Amy was in love with Camden, and it is the place her fans from all over the world associate her with.
The Winehouse family has always been keen to have a memorial for her in the place she loved the most, which will provide fans a place to visit and attract people to the area.”
De onbekende kant van een wereldster in het Joods Historisch Museum . The unknown side of a world star in the Jewish Historical Museum
Where: Jewish Historical Museum Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, 1011 PL Amsterdam
Website: www.jhm.nl
Jewish London Museum on Facebook
8 OF THE BEST LONDON STREET, ART TRIBUTES TO AMY WINEHOUSE.
Blake Fielder-Civil: I’m not responsible for Amy Winehouse’s death.
Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait.
Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.
I’m already two years on a trip to responsibility and freedom for myself and my friends. I’m into personal growth and development. I’m a digital outreach and building with teams to have a massive influence to stop narcissism.
De film AMY vertelt het unieke levensverhaal van zangeres Amy Winehouse vanuit haar eigen perspectief. Met haar fenomenale stem en muzikale talent, behoort zij tot één van de grootste icon en van deze eeuw.
Als dé superster van een generatie en een authentieke jazzartiest pur sang, schreef en zong Amy vanuit het diepst van haar hart. Ze gebruikte haar muzikale gave om haar persoonlijke problemen te uiten.
De combinatie van haar rauwe eerlijkheid en haar talent resulteerde in enkele van de origineelste en meest bejubelde nummers van deze eeuw, waarvoor zij bekroond werd met zes Grammy Awards.
Haar wereldwijde succes had echter ook een keerzijde en veroorzaakte een opdringerig en genadeloos mediacircus, dat in combinatie met haar roerige relaties en rock ‘n roll levensstijl zijn tol begon te eisen . Op 23 juli 2011 overleed Amy Winehouse aan alcoholvergiftiging. Ze was 27 jaar oud.
I Told You I Was Trouble/Live In London DVD
Je kunt zeggen van Amy Winehouse wat je wil, maar ze is een top-artiest in hart en nieren. Zodra ze met haar band op het podium staat is ze hélemaal in haar element en zingt ze de sterren van de hemel!
You can say whatever you want about Amy Winehouse, but she is a top artist through and through. As soon as she is on stage with her band, she is completely in her element and she sings the stars from heaven!
Het optreden dat ze gaf in het Londense Shepherds Bush Empire, maart 2007, is vanaf 2 november verkrijgbaar op een ruim 2uur durende DVD (met de prachtige titel ‘I Told You I Was Trouble’, een knipoog met de nodige zelfspot van deze eigentijdse diva!).
The performance she gave at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, March 2007, will be available on a 2-hour DVD from November 2 (with the beautiful title ‘I Told You I Was Trouble’, a nod with the necessary self-mockery of this contemporary diva !).
Hierop tevens een documentaire over wat zich de afgelopen 4 jaar in het leven van Amy Winehouse heeft afgespeeld.
TRACKLISTING: 1) LIVE FROM SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE (LONDON): Intro/Addicted / Just Friends / Cherry / Back to Black / Wake Up Alone / Tears Dry On Their Own / He Can Only Hold Her / Doo Wop (That Thing) / F*** Me Pumps / Some Unholy War / Love Is A Losing Game / Valerie / Hey Little Rich Girl feat. Zalon & Ade / Rehab / You Know I’m No Good / Me and Mr Jones / Monkey Man / Outro 2) BACK TO BLACK AND WHITE EXTRA OPTION: Tears Dry On Their Own / He Can Only Hold Her / Doo Wop (That Thing) / Some Unholy War 3) I TOLD YOU I WAS TROUBLE Exclusive documentary Beeld: 16:9
Geluid: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, Dolby Stereo
Taal: Engels
- Glossary in English: Diagnostic terms, narcissistic behavior terms, abuse tactics, roles of people, mindcontrol terms, effects of abuse, terms for healing
- Amy Winehouse en overdreven normen in de maatschappij.
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