Good article. Lot of great quotes. Talks about Grammy chances.
Excerpts:
Were it not for her titanic gifts, Winehouse's slide into YouTube's gallery of imploding celebrities might feel less pathetic. Few pop ingénues have displayed such enormous promise or been met with such breathless accolades.
Frank, the snarky, slurry 2003 U.K. debut that hit the USA in November, revealed the soul siren's stunning ability to mimic Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. But it was Black's brave lyrics and retro-hip R&B that unveiled the breadth of Winehouse's instrument and songwriting skills. After 45 weeks on the Billboard chart, Black has sold 1.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Frank has sold 89,000 copies in nine weeks. She has racked up 1.7 million digital track sales.
"It starts with that amazing, ridiculous, showstopping voice," says Mark Ronson, who co-produced Black with Frank's Salaam Remi. "And she writes songs that come from an honest and painful place. You get that darkness in rock bands like Radiohead, but in modern soul, you get generic lyrics across the board. Amy's lyrics are fresh and modern. Rehab resonates because it could only have been written today. For better or worse, she's bringing back a spirit of rebellion to pop music."
"She's the closest thing to a musical and cultural sensation we have. Whether she wins or loses, she's the story of the Grammys."
Describing Winehouse as a "warm person with a sharp sense of humor and a painfully nonchalant Sudafed demeanor," Ronson declined to discuss her personal crises but expressed faith in her career prospects.
"She changed the direction of modern pop music, and she'll continue to break barriers," he says.
Willman concurs.
"If she emerges from whatever psychological and substance-abuse tangle she is in and gets help from people who help her shine as a person as well as an artist, she could be one of our greats, for years or even decades to come," he says.
When Willman saw her perform an acoustic set at an L.A. radio station, "it was as if all the emotions in the universe suddenly were coming out of her mouth. It was almost like this enormous depth of feeling had nothing to do with her, the tiny figure in ballet slippers and a wife-beater shirt, but that she was somehow channeling it.
"I would never lose confidence in her ability to keep doing that."
