# 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:** 7
**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, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/121 "2011-07-25T04:27:10Z")
I would add it’s nothing new of course. People keep referring to Janis Joplin but the real mirror image is that of Marianne Faithful. There are photos on the net of Amy when she was 14, 15, 16 and she was a sweetie, just like Marianne Faithful was when she too became famous at 16. Perfect complexion, smooth healthy young skin, just a lovely young lady. This is a story of the “downward spiral” writ large… again… and it will happen in the future too… again… It’s a sad story. 27 year olds aren’t supposed to suddenly die. Parents aren’t supposed to live longer than their children. Apparently her Mother was already resigned to Amy dying young, such was the inevitability. ---
**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 25, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/122 "2011-07-25T04:30:29Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 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? You are missing everything, evidently. She was an extremely talented singer, and yes, she wrote [wonderful](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjx2fo4XhA) songs. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/123 "2011-07-25T13:17:49Z")
All I knew about Winehouse is she was a singer who had a drug problem. Seeing the clips of her on the Saturday news made me realize she was beautiful, had an amazinf talent, and wasted it. That always makes me so sad and so angry. ---
**Author:** ![rebeccasrevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ec8ea/32.png) [@rebeccasrevenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rebeccasrevenge)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/124 "2011-07-25T13:52:08Z")
Hey,you can always post the 32 link! ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/125 "2011-07-25T16:30:28Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > You are missing everything, evidently. She was an extremely talented singer, and yes, she wrote [wonderful](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjx2fo4XhA) songs. She also plays guitar. Many are now saying that this wasn’t a drug overdose, but something to do with her continuing to drink. The police reported no drugs were found at the scene. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/126 "2011-07-25T16:36:44Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > She also plays guitar. > > Many are now saying that this wasn’t a drug overdose, but something to do with her continuing to drink. The police reported no drugs were found at the scene. Also, her mother said that she had been “out of it” the day before her death. Sounds similar to the stories about Brittany Murphy after she died. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/127 "2011-07-25T16:45:32Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > You are missing everything, evidently. She was an extremely talented singer, and yes, she wrote [wonderful](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjx2fo4XhA) songs. +1,000,000 on this. She was enormously talented and highly respected in the industry. The first time I heard her, Shocker Khan and I were driving home and Teri Hemmert on WXRT played “Rehab,” maybe the first time they’d played it, and introduced the song by talking about how blown away she was by this new breakthrough artist Amy Winehouse. The song came on just as we parked the car and we sat in silence while listening to the track utterly blown away by what we were hearing. Retro-soul seems to be the new fad w/ female singers (Duffy, Adele, Ellie Goulding) but Winehouse paved the way for all of them. While driving yesterday, we listened to the audio rip of her Live in London DVD again and it’s just outstanding. She has such a fantastic way with words in her songs - cutting, honest, and even very funny (“Aside from Sammy you’re my best black Jew.”) I can still remember the goosebumps I felt that first time I heard “Rehab,” and when it came on in the car again yesterday, I got the same chill - only for obviously different reasons. ---
**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 25, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/128 "2011-07-25T16:55:36Z")
TMZ reports the autopsy is inconclusive. It’ll take a few weeks to get the Tox reports. > **[Amy Winehouse -- Autopsy Underway](https://www.tmz.com/2011/07/25/amy-winehouse-dead-dies-died-autopsy-in-bed-apartment-london-no-foul-play-singer-past-addiction-drugs-alcohol-singer/)** > > The autopsy on Amy Winehouse has just begun ... TMZ has learned. > [@](#): > > UPDATE: The autopsy is now complete. According to police, no cause of death was established … test results are still pending. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/129 "2011-07-25T17:51:45Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Also, her mother said that she had been “out of it” the day before her death. Sounds similar to the stories about Brittany Murphy after she died. Apparently she had a physical of some sort on Friday and was pronounced in “good health” at least for her anyway. My guess is she had some sort of seizure caused by the previous damage her drug use caused. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/130 "2011-07-25T17:56:37Z")
Update: Corner Sharon Duff ordered a Section 20 postmortem on Amy, which means that she feels that “there is reasonable cause to suspect that a person has died a violent or unnatural death or in any other way which would require an inquest.” Interesting, after all the assumptions of an OD, it would be crazy if she was actually murdered or something. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/131 "2011-07-25T18:16:12Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if she died not from drugs, but from complications (possibly heart failure) from to her long-term emaciation, which I have always assumed was due to anorexia/undernourishment… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/132 "2011-07-25T18:17:40Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Update: > > Corner Sharon Duff ordered a Section 20 postmortem on Amy, which means that she feels that “there is reasonable cause to suspect that a person has died a violent or unnatural death or in any other way which would require an inquest.” > > Interesting, after all the assumptions of an OD, it would be crazy if she was actually murdered or something. I think those definitions include the suspicion of suicide. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/133 "2011-07-25T18:25:24Z")
Well she was diagnosed with [emphysema](http://www.nme.com/news/amy-winehouse/37538) And she never gave up smoking. Could have been that. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/134 "2011-07-25T18:54:03Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Apparently she had a physical of some sort on Friday and was pronounced in “good health” at least for her anyway. > > My guess is she had some sort of seizure caused by the previous damage her drug use caused. This is possible too. You can abuse your body enough that it’s so wrecked that something that a normal person can survive comes along and kills you. It’s possible that someone who isn’t using anymore is still left with a messed up heart/lungs/liver. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/135 "2011-07-25T20:28:27Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised if she died not from drugs, but from complications (possibly heart failure) from to her long-term emaciation, which I have always assumed was due to anorexia/undernourishment… [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXPsFIVETFg) she is just a few days before she died. She’s certainly skinny, but she looks ‘coke/crack’ skinny, not anorexic skinny and not (IMO) skinny enough to kill her. ---
**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, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/136 "2011-07-25T23:49:48Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Well she was diagnosed with [emphysema](http://www.nme.com/news/amy-winehouse/37538) > > And she never gave up smoking. Could have been that. If the speculation about Amy’s smoking habits is correct - namely, that she was a relentlessly heavy smoker of both cigarettes and crack - then yes, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that her lungs would have been in a bad way. But more than anything else, the photos I’ve seen of her in her darkest moments indicate she was loaded up with toxins of all sorts. The problem with illicit drugs of course is that there’s no quality control - they’re often cut with who knows what sort of crap. If you’re using really heavy, that’s a truckload of toxins you’re introducing into your body which, quite simply, take a toll. The emphysema speculation, if correct, would have doomed her career into oblivion regardless methinks. I suspect it would have been a career dogged with “cancellations” and “poor reviews”, not dissimilar to Whitney Houston’s modern day career. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/137 "2011-07-26T16:04:31Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXPsFIVETFg) she is just a few days before she died. She’s certainly skinny, but she looks ‘coke/crack’ skinny, not anorexic skinny and not (IMO) skinny enough to kill her. It’s kind of relative (especially if you think there’s a ‘crackhead skinny’ which is different from being skinny because you are undernourished). You can die or be seriously ill from complications of an eating disorder without being a skeleton at 60 lbs. Amy has been more than underweight enough for years to qualify for anorexia (less than BMI 17.5). To me, Amy looks frighteningly thin and totally unhealthy in the footage you linked (and I say this as someone who is also underweight, but I look normally proportioned and healthy). [There’s at least a 30 lb difference between her natural weight, where she looked vibrant and attractively curvy, and where she’s been for years.](http://everyjoe.com/files/2007/09/amy-winehouse-fat-thin.jpg) ---
**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 26, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/138 "2011-07-26T18:49:31Z")
At the crematorium? Before or after the fire? Is that a European thing? I thought the ceremony was later with an urn of ashes? Like in a boat and they spread the ashes on the water. \ Guess it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t want to see smoke coming out of the crematorium chimney during the service. That would be a little gross. 😉 > [@](#): > > The family and friends of Amy Winehouse have paid their final respects to the singer at a crematorium in north London. > **[Amy Winehouse family and friends attend cremation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14288390)** > > Amy Winehouse was the happiest she had been in years before her death, her father tells friends and family at her funeral service. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/139 "2011-07-26T19:15:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I wouldn’t want to see smoke coming out of the crematorium chimney during the service. That would be a little gross. 😉 But it would probably get you totally wasted. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088/140 "2011-07-26T19:54:33Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > For the record, someone named **Musicat** is suggesting that Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were mediocre musical artists? No comment on Hendrix, but as for Joplin, mediocre is much higher praise than she deserves. IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amy-winehouse-is-dead/590088.md?page=8)