Amy Winehouse, the prolific talent passed away this weekend in her Camden home. She was, as heavily documented, battling addiction for many years. The scenes outside her home and the outpouring of emotion from her family and friends has been incredibly sad, your heart cannot but go out to them during this terrible time.
I did not know her personally, only through her music and it is in this capacity that I will remember her by and feel sadness for her loss. There could have been so much more for us to enjoy, but her greatest work seemed to come out of her greatest pain and listening to her album Back to Black it is not hard to hear that Amy was a deeply emotional person. She put those deepest feelings, that some people struggle to convey into words and songs and it was this raw honesty that attracted so many people to her music.
Some have criticised those who have expressed sadness, but I do not think it is anyone's place to censure someone else’s' emotions and feelings. It will not hurt her now by calling her names or criticising how she led her life which has now come to an end. She would have known, better than most, the destruction of addiction and it is senseless now to be concentrating on that unless it is to find lessons from her untimely death. Even before the cause of death has been announced people have been falling over themselves to criticise her and express why they will not mourn your passing.
That is their decision, but please have the respect to let other people feel differently.
After all it was Amy's courage to lay her emotions bare that catapulted her to stardom.
A unique and admirable talent.
