JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Reflections on Amy Winehouse (plus video)

By Ami Eden · July 23, 2011

Like Tablet's Marc Tracy, we'll defer to Dvora Meyers -- soon to be contributing to JTA -- on the Jewish significance of Amy Winehouse (found dead Saturday in her London home):

It’s this unrepentant behavior that signals Winehouse’s place in a very different line of Jewish women—not the “nice” ones who make you chicken soup when you’re sick or assure their sons that they’re the smartest boys in the world and any woman would be lucky to marry them. Winehouse’s ancestors are the biblical vixens: Dina, who slept with Shechem; Deborah, the biblical heroine; or, more recently, Monica Lewinsky, the “portly pepperpot” (as the New York Post dubbed her) who nearly ended Bill Clinton’s presidency. These women possessed sexuality so powerful and intoxicating that it influenced national and political outcomes. Still, on “You Know I’m No Good,” Winehouse is most emphatic about another characteristic: her guilt, her seeming regret for all of the things she’s done wrong. It’s as though she’s pounding her chest in synagogue on Yom Kippur, except instead of using the shofar, she confesses her sins above the horns, beats, and drums of Mark Ronson’s production.

The L.A. Jewish Journal's Danielle "Hollywood Jew" Berrin weighs in, writing that she "was a singular star, never allowing herself to become a mass-marketed music product churned out by a record label."

Also worth noting this 2008 blog post from Eryn Loeb over at Lilith:

Q. Amy Winehouse…

a) makes pretty great music.
b) is a crack-smoking trainwreck.
c) is Jewish.

The answer, as you probably know, is all three, and the media is obsessed with each of these factoids. After the release of a video of Winehouse doing various drugs was greeted with requisite shock and a reprise of “is she or isn’t she in rehab?”, I started thinking a little more about (c). In the face of the singer’s unraveling (about which there’s hardly need for yet another commentary), it’s become impossible to ignore just how psyched everyone seems to be that Amy Winehouse is Jewish...

Here are two videos. The first is of her final live stage appearance (on stage, dancing along to Dionne Bromfield at the ITunes Festival in London earlier this month):

The second video is of her breakout performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards. But first ... a little background from EW:

Flashback to 2008: Winehouse was undergoing treatment for drug addiction, which made it difficult for her to obtain a work visa to appear on the show, so CBS and the Grammy brass set up a contingency plan so she could perform live from a London soundstage. At the 11th hour, Winehouse secured that elusive visa, but it was too late for the show, so CBS stayed with Plan B. “We knew we could pull it off,” said Jack Sussman, CBS’ head of special programming. “Regardless of whether you are a rock star, a soul singer, a folk singer or a country artist, everybody wants to be part of the Grammys, so we knew she wanted to participate.”

The performance occurred beyond the witching hour — it was after 3 a.m. when Winehouse appeared on the soundstage to perform. (Cuba Gooding Jr., who was in London at the time, was asked to introduce her appearance.) But it was a seamless transition from the telecast — which was broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles — to the U.K, where Winehouse performed “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab.” By the end of the ceremony, Winehouse won five Grammys, including Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album (for Back to Black), and Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance (all for ”Rehab”). “Any time an artist gets that moment on a Grammy telecast, it is a moment for them to be celebrated by their peers and be seen by tens of millions in one moment in time,” said Sussman, who can’t remember the last time the Grammys went to such lengths to include a performance. “When you score big, you get on a roll and will forever be known as a Grammy winner. There is no doubt about the creative talent that woman had and what she exhibited in that moment in time.”

OK, here it is...