Tunes Tuesday | Amy Winehouse

Whenever I think of Amy Winehouse, I picture her face, I hear her voice and all I can think is Idol. Over the weekend I finally watched the film 'Amy', which documented aspects of her career and personal life. It was a huge eye opener for me.  As you may already know, Amy's life was unfortunately cut short in 2011, due to alcohol poisoning. After she very publically dealt with her issues of  drugs, alcohol, depression and an eating disorder. While watching 'Amy', I was practically screaming at my TV.. Why did no one help her? Why didn't they intervene earlier? How could they let her go on stage like that?  I thought about it a lot and realised just how much things have changed. Nowadays things like, mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction are talked about a lot more and we're more aware of the signs and where and how to get help within our communities, which is truly amazing that we have so much access and information behind these diseases. I honestly can't imagine how Amy felt and how much pain she was in, not only with her addictions but, being so well known in the public eye and constantly being hounded by paparazzi. It really does break my heart, when I see images or videos of Amy when she was unwell, she was such a beautiful person and had an incredible talent.

Amy loved singing from a young age, but never considered growing up and becoming a singer, it was always something that she loved doing and was just so passionate about. Her jazz influence came from her parents, her father Mitch would sing 'Fly Me To The Moon' for her and constantly play Frank Sinatra. When asked in an interview, what her influences were, Amy responded saying that she learns from everything, from Jazz, to Hip Hop, to R&B and all of those influences show in her music.

Amy released 2 albums, 'Frank' and 'Back To Black', both of which were huge successes! In 2008 Amy took the Grammy's by storm, picking up the 'Record of The Year Award', beating the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna and Foo Fighters, something which artists nowadays could only dream of doing. Her songs were always very personal to her, she speaks a lot about her relationships and her addictions, I think in a way, it was her way of processing what was going on in her life and she treated song writing kind of like therapy. She needed music.

"Feel like a lady, and you my lady boy" - Stronger Than Me | I love the lyrics to this song! There's definitely a lot of play on words in 'Stronger Than Me', it's obviously about being in a relationship with an older man and how they weren't quite what you expected and she plays around with that a lot, lines like 'I always have to comfort you', 'You're supposed to be the man', 'I've forgotten all of young loves joy', it's brilliant! Lyrically it's one of my favourite songs of all time!  

"You all look the same, everyone knows your name and that's your whole claim to fame" - Fuck Me Pumps | Again, this is another brilliantly written song! When the album 'Frank' came out, it was in a time where footballers wives were a massive thing, they were all over the tabloids, coming out with reality shows, writing books ect, and this song basically represents that time and kinda taking the mick and saying how it was everyone's 'dream' to become a footballers wife but, not hers.

"I couldn't resist him, his eyes were like yours" - I Heard Love Is Blind | This was the first song I ever heard from Amy Winehouse and oh my... that voice! It was the first time I ever properly experienced Jazz and she made me fall in love with it, just by the tone in her voice and her beautiful songs.

"And it's not just my pride, It's just till these tears have dried" - Rehab | Rehab was by far the best selling single Amy ever released! I think it was so popular because, it was at that point that the world was so aware of Amy's issues and I think it was her way of kind of talking about the elephant in the room and just putting it out there that yes, I was gunna go to rehab but, I said no. Which is just such a huge statement for any artist to make. I also think it was so popular because, at that time people were kind of opening their eyes to drug and alcohol addiction and a lot of famous celebrities entered rehab because of these issues and came out reformed. It's definitely one of those songs that can be interpreted in different ways.    

"I cheated myself, like I knew I would. I told you I was trouble, you know that I'm no good" - You Know I'm No Good | This song, tells a story about being in a relationship and cheating on the person your with, after you've warned them that it's bound to happen, I'm no good ect, then the twist is that the person your with is kind of like that too and together this destructive relationship forms and they both become 'trouble'. I love the meaning behind this song, it's very raw and real. I just like the overall vibe.

"Though you're a gambling man, love is a losing hand" - Love Is A Losing Game | 'Back to Black' was very different from the debut 'Frank', it was slightly more poppy and mainstream, though she does go back to her Jazz roots with this song. The song represents, I guess, being in a relationship and both getting nothing from it and have therefore 'lost' the game that is love. It's a very pretty song and beautifully sung.

"He walks away, the sun goes down, he takes the day but I'm grown" - Tears Dry On Their Own | This is a very empowering song about walking away from a relationship and how it was eventually going end in tears but, by walking away, your 'tears dry on their own' because they're are no tears, if that makes sense? That's how I see it anyway. It's also my favourite one listening to live, whenever I'm on YouTube listening to music I'll always put on a live version as apposed to studio, as her vocals sound amazing on this track, her voice is so raw and edgy.. I love it!

"We only said goodbye with words, I died a hundred times" - Back To Black | Back to black, is a pretty intense and dramatic song, about mourning a relationship or a loss, as you know they've cheated and somehow their not the same and you can try and pour yourself into the relationship but, at the end of the day they'll keep cheating and the relationship will come to an end, which can be pretty heart breaking.

Well, there you have it! That's my thoughts on Amy Winehouse, I love her! She has had her ups and her downs but, at the end of the day it was all about the music for her and that just speaks for itself. Even though she only put out 2 albums, they are amazing! And if you haven't got them already, then you need to at least check them out!