Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [62]
That was followed by similar triumphs for Joss Stone, Lily Allen, Corinne Bailey Rae and KT Tunstall. British female talent had not known the like since Kim Wilde and Kate Bush twenty years earlier.
While it is traditional to see America as an almost impossible nut for British artists to crack – a member of the pop band Busted claimed that statistically one has more of a chance of winning the lottery than cracking America – occasionally Brits can find they are at something of an advantage across the Pond, particularly if their sound is clearly influenced by American music. Industry commentators argue that Americans feel the need to have their own music ‘sung back at them’ by foreign acts. It reassures them of the worth of the American music scene and is a welcome occurrence whenever it happens.
For instance, it is argued, Eric Clapton’s love of the American blues sound was so strong that it outdid any American’s devotion to the genre, thus refreshing interest in the blues Stateside. Even more stark was the case of Terence Trent D’Arby, who was presented to the US market as a hot new British act. The truth was that D’Arby was actually a New Yorker by birth, but his record company deliberately chose to market him as a British act because they felt he stood more of a chance that way.
Amy’s politically incorrect nature was a breath of fresh air in America, where sanitised goody-goody artists have increasingly ruled the roost. A San Francisco Chronicle journalist, Mark Morford, says, ‘She should be allowed to march right onto the American Idol stage and slap each and every singer upside the head with her huge hair and her wicked sexy tattoos and her mountain of raw British talent, just because. All part of our national rehab, really.’ He concluded, ‘I think this could be our perfect American model. I think we have the potential.’
Amy is unrepentant about the honest nature of her songs, not regretting this aspect of her songwriting for a moment. ‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘I’m glad that I could be that person. Music is the one thing in my life where I won’t ever lie or cover anything up. I could go into a therapy session with a professional, and I would not be as honest as if I had a notepad in front of me. For some reason, when I write stuff I always end up telling the truth, so much more so than in my [day-to-day] life.’
Her friends confirm that just as she is honest and, well, frank in her lyrics, so she is in her everyday life. ‘She’s a fiery person, but we’ve never argued,’ says John the White Rapper. ‘Partly, I’m not that silly, and I know I’d get my balls cut off – if you say something that pisses her off she’ll eat you alive – but also because there’s never any tension between us. We meet up and chill. It’s perfect, really.’
Her frankness, too, was perfect for America, giving her an edge. However, before we get carried away, we would do well to list some of the acts that have failed to make it in America. Top of this list must be Robbie Williams, who, in the words of a leading American record company executive, arrived in America by private jet, vowed to conquer the country, and was sent home by bus. Indeed, Williams has yet to come home and is still to be found on the West Coast of America, ruing his spectacular failure to make it there. And what of Oasis, who seemed to implode as a band the moment they arrived in the US? Although they have since picked up a respectable following there, when they were at the terrifying peak of their fame in the mid-1990s, they were unable to replicate their success in America to any significant degree.
Readers who are interested in not just a graphic example of a band failing to make it in America, but also a cracking piece of television should refer to the MTV series America or Busted, which followed the pop band Busted – complete with Amy’s friend and former Sylvia Young classmate Matt Willis – as they tried to crack America. At this stage of their career the band were Britain