Sad when anyone dies. Sadder still when anyone throws their life away.

i have no idea what the cause of death is at this point. but i can suppose

It seems it was due to an overdose. But, did she throw her life away or she just lived life the way she wanted it.

She won’t be living her life the way she wants to anymore.

It is always sad when someone dies too young. I don’t care if they are a waitress or a rock star. People notice rock stars more and say it’s a shame, but stars are people, too, and have problems the same as everyone else.

When you’re addicted to anything, I believe it’s because of some deep pain in your life. People don’t turn to drugs over and over for fun. They do it because they are running from something. I doubt if we’ll ever know what Amy was running from, but all I can say is that I am sorry for her—that she had a life she couldn’t cope with. Some pains are too much, and it can seem like the only way to cope with them is to die. It is also possible that she had some form of mental illness.

I hope people will look past the scandal and the judgments to find some compassion for someone who couldn’t cope with her pain. I’ve felt some of that pain, and I know what it can do to you. But the pain I felt wasn’t even nearly half the pain she was probably feeling.

I have no thoughts about it.

I told my daughter today that I see her as the Janis Joplin of her generation.
Sad, a waste of talent, but nothing new in the music/celebrity scene.

Lots of highly talented peeps are equally very troubled.

It happens, sadly so.

I’m surprised at how much it saddens me.
I love her music, and I always felt sad for her- that she was unable to get the help she needed, for whatever made her feel like she needed to turn to drugs, and that she had become a media joke. I assumed she would get help, but I guess not. I just hope her soul is at rest, and saddened that the world lost such talent.

Drugs are bad, m’kay.

I have never heard of her until now. The first song that I’ve heard her sing a couple of minute ago is “Back to Black” from You Tube. She had a unique and captivating style. She kind of reminds me of Joe Cocker when she slurs the words. I like what little I’ve heard so far. Any way it is a tragic loss of a talented young women.

Ok, now for some better thoughts on the subject:

07/23/11 DoD: Army Casualty Identified
Master Sgt. Benjamin A. Stevenson, 36, of Canyon Lake, Texas, died July 21 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.

It is sad. She was a troubled, but talented young woman.

I feel way, way worse for the kids in Norway that got tricked into trusting a fake cop that killed 85 of them. Many while swimming away. Amy Winehouse had way more choices about the direction of her life than those kids.

Maybe I shouldn’t have answered. That’s been bothering me all day.

@cockswain I’m glad you answered. I feel the same. So much attention to celebrity sickens me. :/

Dying at age 27 has it’s notoriety in the rock community.

www.hubpages.com/hub/Infamous-Eleven-Rock-Stars-Dead-at-27

Amy’s already been added.

Yes, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim morrison, Kurt Cobain…

I get frustrated when soaring superstars like Amy destroy their lives front and center for the whole world to watch. Kids see this and are directly influenced by fuckup celebrities like her…RIP

But hopefully they will also see what the end can be if you choose that lifestyle…

I read today that when you think of Marilyn Monroe you think of her striking beauty and not that she was an alcoholic. Perhaps, it will also happen to Amy who had a fantastic voice…

I was a kid in the 60’s, and a teen in the 70’s and glorified the dead rockers but not their drug habits.

I never did Heroin, but yeah…just about everything else in that time of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.

I was careful and prudent for the most part. A sign of those times.

As always, some experiment and live to tell the wild stories of their youth, others sink their own ships and do not.

I may have had my moments but I do not, in any way, glorify drug abuse.

It’s too bad for her and those who loved her, of course. That’s always the case.

As for me, I thought I’d have a lot longer to ignore her career and works. Now I need to give a listen, I suppose. One can only hope that her ‘look’ doesn’t now become widely adopted.

Maybe she should have gone to rehab… instead of singing about not going.

I though Al Jazeera had some pretty good coverage.

Big black horse and a cherry tree is my favorite. Great song, she really had a voice on her.

Should’ve said “yes, yes, yes” when they tried to make her go to rehab.

I think she is finally at peace, she really didn’t want to be here, she wanted out and now she is okay.

I never really knew much about her. My only understanding of her was that she was trashy and a drug addict. :\

@jonsblond I totally get how that is a bigger issue in the grand scheme, but I don’t understand why in this forum and others, people try to project the idea that the death of someone famous shouldn’t be discussed as a tragedy in itself.

@Coloma Psst. That’s KT Tunstall, not Amy Winehouse.

It pisses me off, to be quite honest. Whenever someone with great talent pisses their life away so stupidly, it makes me sad and angry.

Well while it seems obvious that she died from a drug overdose, the police are asking people not to speculate. Perhaps it was suicide? Perhaps she had a coronary? We don’t really know.

Regardless of their celebrity or otherwise, when anyone so young dies, even if it is because of their own actions, it is a tragedy. I don’t think this thread is suggesting Amy Winehouse is more important than those poor people who have died in Norway, the two things are not connected. The Norway situation is just terrible. There are no words to describe how terrible. In terms of this thread though, ultimately Amy Winehouse was a talented 27 year old young woman with parents, friends and family who loved her and who for some reason has died. That’s just sad. Famous or not.

It’s sad because she was very talented, but I am totally not surprised. The only thing that surprises me really, is that she hadn’t died sooner.

Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse. Two out of three isn’t bad.

“A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.”

This is quite overwhelming for many celebrities. Many are totally unprepared for handling success and failures properly.

Amy Winehouse’s death is a tragedy whether she was talented or not.

I think we should include the subject in the school curriculum. We should warn kids not only about drugs but also about worshipping pop stars like superhumans. The whole celebrity cult fueled by mass media wanting to make a quick buck is very problematic.

@mattbrowne I agree with you. She really changed along the way and went downhill when she became a celebrity.

Oops, mixin’ up artists lol

@quiddidyquestions I don’t believe her death is a tragedy. Maybe if you liked her music, but I wasn’t a fan. Those are my thoughts on the topic. My neighbor’s young adult son falling to his death when he was helping a friend fix the roof of a barn, leaving behind a 2 yr old son is a tragedy. A person dying because they abused their body with drugs is not a tragedy. (I know we don’t know the cause of death yet, but still) This is just my opinion, and the question did ask for “our thoughts” on the subject. Now if the question had read “Can we celebrate the talent and life of Amy?” I would respect the OP’s wishes and leave the question alone, but that was not the question.:)

@jonsblond I disagree with you. Every young death is a tragedy. Preventable ones are even more so. Your neighbor’s son’s death was preventable. So are deaths from drug overdoses.

Amy was sick. I don’t know what she was sick from, but she was sick from something that could have been treated. Most accidents where people fall off of roofs are also preventable. But people aren’t educated about how to work safely.

@Porifera mentioned Marilyn Monroe and her alcoholism. I don’t know how common this knowledge is, but Marilyn Monroe was also most likely fighting bipolar disorder. It is very common for people with bipolar disorder to self-medicate, either with alcohol or pot or other drugs.

People don’t turn to drugs for no reason at all. It’s usually psychological reasons. Sometimes it is as basic as peer pressure. Other times it is the pain from mental illness. Other times is the pain from social anxiety. Amy Winehouse wouldn’t be the first artist to turn to drugs to cope with performance fears. Whatever was going on will almost certainly be described in great detail when the documentary shows up in six months.

I don’t know what was going on with her, but it really bothers me that people rush to judge her because she had a drug problem. We don’t know the other problems she had. Celebrities get extra attention because they have done things that a lot of people like. Being talented, though, doesn’t make you immune from ordinary problems, nor should it make you less deserving of compassion.

@wundayatta It’s a good thing we are all entitled to our own opinion then.

The idea to bring this to Fluther came about last night when my sister broke the news to me about her Amy’s death. My initial reply was well, you get what you sign up for…dopehead. My sister then told me that drug addiction was a disease and that we should be more empathetic and less judgemental. I always want to review my points of view since I tend to be a bit severe and have very little patience with those who struggle with addictions of any kind. I have the least addiction prone personality you’ll ever meet but also never want to be judgemental, unfair and lose perspective. So wating to be fair I thought to myself this is a case for the flutherites.

As others have said here, she was a celebrity, but first and foremost she was a human being. To me it is a tragedy for her fans, her family and those who loved her. For the rest, her death —if nothing else— brings to the table the fact that it can happen to anyone and the saddest thing is that nobody can do anything about it unless the addicts themselves understand that they need professional help and accept it before it’s too late.

She’s been “gone” for fucking years, the loose ends have just been tied up that’s all.

@jonsblond Yes it is, and I want you to know that I respect your opinion even though I disagree with it.