Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [82]
Meanwhile, Amy was once more appearing in media polls, both positively and negatively. For instance, she appeared in the NME’s 2008 Villain of the Year poll, but also in the same title’s Best Solo Artist and Best DVD polls. Glamour magazine named her the third-worst dressed British woman, but then Sky News viewers named her the second-greatest Ultimate Heroine. She had topped the voting among viewers under 25 years old. These polls are a mere selection of those she graced, and reflect perfectly the ‘love her or hate her, you can’t ignore her’ position Amy occupies in the public psyche.
Her relationship with Blake has always been a mixed bag, too. When he was released from prison in November 2008, he checked straight into rehab in Surrey. Far from rushing to see him, Amy was instead photographed out and about in London, up to her normal late-night jolly japes. She failed to see him at all during his first month of freedom, even when he launched an (unsuccessful) bid to appeal against his conviction. The grapevine was soon abuzz with rumours that she was in the process of divorcing Blake. ‘It’s over. There’s no way back for us now,’ Amy is said to have told friends. ‘It was never going to last. I fancied him like mad, like no one else I’ve ever known. But it’s not enough, is it?’ Amy would have to travel far and wide to find anyone who believed she should stay with Blake. Soon after she prepared to dump Blake, he reportedly admitted in a taped interview to News of the World what many had long suspected: that he introduced Amy to hard drugs.
‘I introduced her to heroin, crack cocaine and self-harming,’ said Blake. ‘I feel more than guilty. The first time Amy took crack she asked me, “Can I try a bit of that?” Crack is the nastiest drug. It makes you paranoid, unreasonable, edgy and totally suspicious of everyone.
‘And you can get hooked on it straight away. But I was weak and an addict and I let Amy take some. I didn’t stop it from happening. For that I take full responsibility. It became something we did as well as heroin. And then our lives fell apart.’ It is to be hoped both parties can rebuild their lives – separately.
As Blake made this confession, Amy was once again in hospital, her fourth hospitalisation in 2008. It had been a strange year for her, during which her immense musical talent and the magnetic charm of her best live performances became secondary concerns. What she instead became known for was her ability to spark negative press stories about her painfully thin body, her drink and drug use and other controversies. Things got so wild that at one point her father Mitch attempted to have her sectioned to a mental institution. With the media following her every move, Amy seemed to many to be on an unstoppable downward spiral.
Where was the music among all this chaos? It was there for anyone who cared to look beyond the ‘shock horror’ of the tabloids. Back To Black continued to shift throughout the world, with its 11million-plus sales contributing to her topping the charts in the United States. A deluxe version of the album was released in the UK and quickly topped the charts here, too. Back To Black is one of the top ten bestselling albums of the 21st century and royalties from its sales constitute a large slice of her estimated £10million personal fortune. Whatever problems she has in her personal life, Amy has no trouble shifting albums.
Nor in gathering serious musical awards. In May 2008 she was once more nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello award, and once more she was triumphant. She won the award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for ‘Love is a Losing Game’. Amy was also nominated in the same category for ‘You Know I’m No Good’. Organisers said that it was the first time that an artist had