# Amy Winehouse is dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088 "2011-07-23T16:41:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/101 "2011-07-24T12:54:22Z")
Debating on whether her music was good or not is kind of silly. I.E. If you admire amazing guitar skills. You’d probably hold the opinion that Kurt Cobain wasn’t a very technical guitar player and for the most part people are correct he was average guitar player. But how he constructed songs with reverse melodies inspired a whole generation of kids to run out and buy guitars. Music is art. What some people find talentless others enjoy. It’s a matter of personal taste. That’s art. I never was a fan of Amy Winehouse. But RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/102 "2011-07-24T13:32:24Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Also, it’s not yet been confirmed that she died of a drug overdose. It’s a strong possibility, sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to wait until the facts are reported. The London police confirmed it was a drug overdose yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/103 "2011-07-24T15:25:05Z")
No they didn’t. Post mortem is next week. > **[Amy Winehouse family 'bereft' at singer's death](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14268811)** > > Amy Winehouse's family issue a statement about the singer's death saying she leaves a "gaping hole" in their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/104 "2011-07-24T15:25:36Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > The London police confirmed it was a drug overdose yesterday. The [BBC report](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14268811)says otherwise. [QUOTE=BBC News] A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out next week to determine the cause of death, which police currently say is “unexplained”. [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t be surprised if it does turn out to be an overdose, but it’s not a certainty. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/105 "2011-07-24T18:20:37Z")
> [@mutantmoose](#): > > No they didn’t. Post mortem is next week. > > [Amy Winehouse family 'bereft' at singer's death - BBC News](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14268811) I guess that’ll teach me to trust the HuffPo. It was originally included in the updates at the bottom of this article, but it’s now been slightly reworded to say “The Sunday Mirror will report tomorrow that Winehouse’s death was caused by alcohol and the drug ecstasy.” Because that’s exactly the same thing as a statement from the police. :rolleyes: > **[Amy Winehouse Dead](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amy-winehouse-dead-singer_n_907753)** > > Amy Winehouse Dead ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/106 "2011-07-24T18:29:37Z")
> [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](#): > > That being said, arguing about musical tastes on the internet is an exercise in exasperation so I won’t even go there - at all. > [@Ibanez](#): > > Debating on whether her music was good or not is kind of silly. > … > It’s a matter of personal taste. Just to be clear, I didn’t say anything about tastes and I don’t think anyone else did except possibly **Stoid**. I asked about musical or cultural import, since the “27 Club,” according to the linked wiki, is about _influential_ artists (not that all those listed in the second section clearly qualify). ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/107 "2011-07-24T18:32:35Z")
I thought that an Ecstasy OD that ends up causing death is EXTREMELY rare, at least compared to the percentages of various drugs that people OD and then die from… Isn’t an X overdose typically characterized by hyperthermia and dehydration? ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/108 "2011-07-24T19:02:20Z")
I guess I wasn’t clear in my above post… If 10,000 per year are killed by illegal drug overdoses, isn’t Ecstasy only responsible for a tiny handful of those deaths? And as AW was at home, (rather than a rave at a hot, crowded warehouse somewhere, for example) she should have been able to keep cool and hydrated, which are the typical issues that X overdoses usually center around. Maybe her heart simply gave out from the stimulant effect of too much X, which is a cousin of amphetamine, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/109 "2011-07-24T19:11:15Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Just to be clear, I didn’t say anything about tastes and I don’t think anyone else did except possibly **Stoid**. I asked about musical or cultural import, since the “27 Club,” according to the linked wiki, is about _influential_ artists (not that all those listed in the second section clearly qualify). No, I didn’t. Influential is pretty hard to determine at this stage, although I’ll throw Duffy in the ring as one who was clearly influenced by Amy, whatever that’s worth. 0 I cannot get over how much this bums me out. Goddamit. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/110 "2011-07-24T19:13:56Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I guess I wasn’t clear in my above post… > > If 10,000 per year are killed by illegal drug overdoses, isn’t Ecstasy only responsible for a tiny handful of those deaths? > > And as AW was at home, (rather than a rave at a hot, crowded warehouse somewhere, for example) she should have been able to keep cool and hydrated, which are the typical issues that X overdoses usually center around. > > Maybe her heart simply gave out from the stimulant effect of too much X, which is a cousin of amphetamine, correct? Whatever the particulars, I think it’s a virtual certainty that her death was somehow caused by excessive recreational chemical consumption, whether it was by slowing her heart down so much it stopped with downers and alcohol, or speeding it up so much it popped with coke or X. One way or another, I’d bet the farm that without drugs, she’d be alive right now. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/111 "2011-07-24T20:01:03Z")
At the U2 concert in Minneapolis last night they dedicated “Stuck in a Moment” to Amy. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/112 "2011-07-24T20:01:05Z")
Sad news, but hardly a surprise. I’ve never played celebrity death pool, but she’d have been the first name on my list. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/113 "2011-07-24T21:40:02Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > No, I didn’t. > > Influential is pretty hard to determine at this stage, although I’ll throw Duffy in the ring as one who was clearly influenced by Amy, whatever that’s worth. 0 > > I cannot get over how much this bums me out. Goddamit. New Zealand’s [Gin Wigmore](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luhnj7ZPWL4) is another ‘poor man’s Amy Winehouse’. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/114 "2011-07-24T22:53:55Z")
I’m morbidly curious as to what the cause of death will be. Death through misadventure ? Or intentionally joining that dumb ass 27 club, for what ? To become a cliché ? So sad to see talented people like this pull the plug. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/115 "2011-07-24T23:22:46Z")
It’s a shame Winehouse’s parents didn’t go to court and get conservatorship. It saved Britany Spears. I recall in 2008 she was hitting rock bottom. Cutting off her hair, popping up all over LA in this scary psychotic state. Her father got conservatorship and put her in a psych hospital. She’s been doing great ever since. She’s been touring the last two years. No trouble at all. The judge decided recently to continue it throughout this year. > **[Britney Spears' Conservatorship Will Remain In Place At Least Through This Year](https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/06/britney-spears-conservatorship-will-remain-place-least-through-year/)** > > By Jen HegerRadar Legal Editor > Britney Spears began her Femme Fatale tour in Sacramento on Thursday, and just like her last tour in 2009, the pop star remains Who knows, this might have worked with Winehouse. Hard to say for sure. Conservatorship only works if the person cooperates and tries to get better. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/116 "2011-07-24T23:40:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s a shame Winehouse’s parents didn’t go to court and get conservatorship. > > It saved Britany Spears. I recall in 2008 she was hitting rock bottom. Cutting off her hair, popping up all over LA in this scary psychotic state. Her father got conservatorship and put her in a psych hospital. She’s been doing great ever since. She’s been touring the last two years. No trouble at all. The judge decided recently to continue it throughout this year. > [Britney Spears' Conservatorship Will Remain In Place At Least Through This Year](http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/06/britney-spears-conservatorship-will-remain-place-least-through-year) > > **Who knows, this might have worked with Winehouse. Hard to say for sure. Conservatorship only works if the person cooperates and tries to get better.** Yes, I agree. Those are wise words I highlighted in bold. I’m in the camp that says cold turkey is the cure for addictive behaviours. I do NOT subscribe to the theory that you ween yourself from an addiction to a given chemical substance. It’s my view that it takes months of cold turkey before your decision making and cognitive thought processes even remotely return to normal, and even then, it’s only AFTER months of abstinence that you can then focus on your health, and making positive life decisions moving forward. It’s my view that celebrities who have chronic addictions face an unusually hard uphill battle. You wouldn’t think they do, but with celebrities you often have a whole bunch of people hanging on who make money out of a given celebrity maintaining their career. I’ve come to the conclusion that the single biggest impediment to a celebrity getting clean and getting back to 100% mental health, is in fact, their own careers because so many hangers on are putting pressure on them to maintain being in the spotlight - and being smack bang in the spotlight is precisely the roller coaster that put them on the train wreck in the first place. Robert Downey Jr is the role model here. That’s a guy who happily put his career on hold for two whole years while he went totally private and under the radar. During that time, abstinence and healthy living allowed him to shake his demons and regain physical and mental health to such a level that he’s now acting better than ever. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/117 "2011-07-25T00:14:38Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I thought that an Ecstasy OD that ends up causing death is EXTREMELY rare, at least compared to the percentages of various drugs that people OD and then die from… > > Isn’t an X overdose typically characterized by hyperthermia and dehydration? Either that or water intoxication. I’d be surprised if she was only doing ecstasy when she died. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/118 "2011-07-25T00:54:31Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Either that or water intoxication. I’d be surprised if she was only doing ecstasy when she died. Yeah, I don’t want to hijack this and turn it into an ecstasy tutorial, but I was under the impression that X is generally pretty safe, as far as street drugs go, at least when it comes to the prospect of taking it and then suddenly keeling over dead is concerned. ## The main danger of using ecstasy that is now being trumpeted seems to be chiefly the potential of messing up your neurochemistry with prolonged, long term use of the drug. I know next to nothing about Amy Winehouse or her music, but even I know that by all accounts she was a truly hardcore druggie, so I would imagine that her toxicology report is going to read like a police evidence log taken at a 3-day Music Festival featuring Phish, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/119 "2011-07-25T03:41:51Z")
I’ve heard of her, but she never got any airplay on stations that I listen to. That even includes stations my kids listen to. Viewing some youtube clips I’m thinking, so? She’s a moderately talented singer. She doesn’t play any instruments that I can tell. Did she write any songs? Sorry, but I don’t see the talent. What am I missing? Did she in fact write stuff, or is what I’m seeing on youtube (a capable singer) her entire legacy? ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/120 "2011-07-25T04:14:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’ve heard of her, but she never got any airplay on stations that I listen to. That even includes stations my kids listen to. Viewing some youtube clips I’m thinking, so? > > She’s a moderately talented singer. She doesn’t play any instruments that I can tell. Did she write any songs? > > Sorry, but I don’t see the talent. > > **What am I missing? Did she in fact write stuff, or is what I’m seeing on youtube (a capable singer) her entire legacy?** By definition, the arts are subjective, which means that an internet discussion about anything artistic is essentially an exchange of opinions with no right or wrong answer. Put aside the questions of artistic merit for a moment. The issue, it seems to me, is that Amy’s star burnt very bright because she insisted on burning her candle at both ends - with an oxyacetylene torch. That’s it in a nutshell, basically. As long as 5 years ago she was already writing songs about the need in her life for drug rehab, and she was banned from attending the Grammys (have I got that right) because she was already an epic drug fuck… back then… and she only got worse, by all reports. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088.md?page=7)