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La Repubblica XL Magazine Article/Interview (March 2007)


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#1 Uno

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Posted 12 October 2013 - 12:04 PM

This is an interview that Amy did while she was in Milan for the March 2007 issue of La Repubblica XL magazine. It was republished on their website in July 2011. The article is in Italian, so the text is translated to English and posted down below the scans ...


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From the one who said fuck Bono during a gala, punched an innocent fan and dropped a concert in the middle to go throw up after 48 hours of drinking, the last thing you'd expect, really, is that she arrived on time for an interview scheduled at eleven in the morning. Yet. When Amy Winehouse walks down the stairs to the lobby of the hotel in Milan where we meet, she is only five minutes late and looked quite normal, not at all upset, sloppy, or worse done. Ten days later, the English newspapers published photos of the actress in the middle of the celebrations for the victory as the best female artist at the British Awards, with white powder on the nostrils and a caption "Go to Rehab, Amy, Go GoGo" (Take it easy in the clinic, Amy, vaccivai vaccination), paraphrasing her smash catchphrase in Rehab. But here, in this moment, Amy does not look like the pop star that is cursed, the infamous "female version of Pete Doherty" who dug up the charts telling how she managed to avoid admission to a detoxification center. Indeed, if it were not for the huge airship of hair that crowns her head, tattoos and heavy makeup that kooks like it's from a secret daughter of Keith Richards and Moira Orfei, she could be mistaken for any competitor of Fame: Reebok from aerobics to toe, skinny jeans and hooded sweatshirts. In addition, the mild air and resignation with which she confronts our conversation makes me feel vaguely as if we were in prison during visiting hours and I had come to bring the greetings of her elderly grandmother, but with the fear that she could erupt at any moment, sending me "get the fuck out of here". "I know, people usually think I'm a horrible person, scary, but the truth is that I am not so. The story of Bono, for example. He was doing one of his usual speeches and I said to my father, Shut up! I don't give a fuck. Only, I've said too loudly "she mutters chewing gum with her mouth wide open. "You know, the fact is that I am a sincere, honest person. The truth is by far what is the most important to me. " Truth in the vocabulary of Amy Winehouse means "what everyone thinks, but no one dares to say". Type that Chris Martin of Coldplay is a "little wanker," Britney Spears a "freak of nature" (in the light of recent events, who can deny it? No, seriously ...), the music of Dido 'rubbish, the perfect soundtrack for the death ", things like that. According to Amy, the greatest sin of which an artist can stain is not to put soul in what he does. Because he is giving it his all. And when you listen to it you feel it, right, you get chills, and sometimes even cry.

She is a twenty-three year old Jewish Londoner, but has the voice of a black blues singer three times her age. Her talent is shockingly monstrous. But what makes her unique and different from Joss Stone, Norah Jones and all the other soul girl around, it's the ability to tell what is true and painful - love, relationships, infidelity, life - with black humor and a touching sincerity. I cheated, I betrayed/knew/I told us that I was screwed-up/Now you know that there is nothing good in me, sings in "You Know I'm No Good, somber tone and resigned on a background brass vintage soul. "I was inspired by the 60s, groups of girls Shangri-Las, the Motown records. Simple stuff that gets right to the point. I think that the past has a charm, style and magic that this time does not have." The love of the past, Amy also expresses in outfits that she wears on official occasions: from Supremes dresses that add a personal touch to the reformatory. "I look tough, but I'm not really a bitch," she says placing the airship (hair), that in the meantime has softened and now looks more like an octopus, with long locks that falls onto her shoulders like tentacles. "When I say things as they are, apparent for people, for their own good". But when someone tried to do her good, the answer was what we all hear on the radio or on TV: No, No, No .... Amy began to drink too much in the interval between the first album Frank, which debut at nineteen and which had made ​​her a star in England, and the new, beautiful Back To Black . "so I had too much free time and I started to drink a lot from boredom and because I like it, but because it was over with my boyfriend. But at some point things got out of control. I was reduced to such a state that my friends came to my house to do the cleaning, give me a wash, and make sure I Was okay. I had lost several pounds and newspapers had begun to say that I was anorexic, but I actually forgot to eat." When she began to appear on TV completely drunk, arguing with fans and stop the concerts, her management was seriously worried.

They told my parents they wanted to take me to the clinic. My reaction was: "I have no intention to do so: it's stupid." But they were determined, and then I went to make them happy. There, they asked "Why do you think you're here?". I said, "Because I'm in love. That's why I drink a lot and I am a mess. " And he: "Good. You're not an alcoholic, you're just depressed. " That's it. "But if you were depressed, you could still try to get help. You could go to an analyst ... "Never. I believe that if you can not on your own, no one can help you. It is the music that is my therapy. I write songs about all my trouble and after I always feel a bit better. When I sing on stage, then I get rid of all the bad feelings."
As the sense of guilt for having ruining everything with Blake, the ex-boyfriend who inspired much of Back To Black. In the poignant song that gives title to the album, Amy sings with a dramatic tone of Billie Holiday: We only said goodbye with words / I died a hundred times / You are returned to her / And I came back to the darkness. Blake will not go away easily from her heart. It is not a maudlin metaphor: is that on her chest, just above her left breast Amy has his name tattooed. Now she's with another guy, Alex, a chef who plays in a band called Los Muertos, but the tattoo she wants to keep. "So every time I look in the mirror, I remember how much can be stupid." And Alex? He does not bother you? "Yes, but it does not matter. Nonsignifica nothing for me. I have thirteen tattoos. I like them, I find them so beautiful ... The last one is this pinup on her right arm, "she opens the zipper of her sweatshirt to show it. It is really very thin. On the left arm she has other pin up, a lucky horseshoe and the words "Daddy's Girl". Amy loves her father called Mitch, a taxi driver and when she was a young girl when she attended schools for young talent, he did play the music of his daughter to customers who climbed into the taxi, as the father of Bruno Martelli Fame. "My father is great. It was he who introduced me to soul and jazz when I was little. We are very similar. Even in the tendency to infidelity. As a child I did not understand, I suffered a lot when he divorced my mother, but now I do not feel more than judge. " It is mutual: whatever faces Amy, Mitch is on her side. After photos with cocaine, he told the Sun that his daughter "is not on drugs. Smoke some pot, but who does not? She is not an alcoholic because she does not drink every day." Is that true? "Yes, now I do. I only drink once in a while. I still like it, but I learned to control myself." Kelly Osbourne helped you? Once you said she was your "conscience." "Oh, no, if Kelly was my conscience. I'd be really bad," she laughs. "But she is a great friend of mine, she is also here with me in Milan. There have been times when she has literally saved my life, pulling me out of the pub. When we are together, we do normal things: going out to dinner, shopping, getting around the club. " With her "alter ego" Pete Doherty, however, at one point there was talk of a duet: "I do not think it will do nothing. We are one worse than the other, too upset. And then not very frequent. I prefer to do other things. " For example? "Going to my favorite pub, a stone's throw from home, with my old friends. I would never go around doing the pop star. The truth .. '. Yes? "The truth is that I am different from all the others. I always have been, since childhood. Only then I looked horrible. Now, however, I like it a
lot. "


http://videodrome-xl...-amy-winehouse/
Amy, if you are up there listening, thank you for sharing the incredible soundtracks of your life ...

#2 Elsie

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Posted 13 October 2013 - 04:48 PM

Britney Spears a "freak of nature" (in the light of recent events, who can deny it? No, seriously ...)


I'm actually really disappointed she said this as she was someone who also supposedly had mental health issues...

He still stands in spite of what his Mars bar says.


#3 HelloSailor

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Posted 14 October 2013 - 05:01 AM

Yeah, I guess it just shows Amy's arrogance around that time, where she still thought she was on top of her game and that she would never lose it like Britney Spears. She still strongly believed, right up until her death, that "if you can't help herself, then no one can". I think that was her downfall, not being humble enough to reach out for help.

#4 melnyk

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Posted 14 October 2013 - 07:26 AM

Yeah, I guess it just shows Amy's arrogance around that time, where she still thought she was on top of her game and that she would never lose it like Britney Spears. She still strongly believed, right up until her death, that "if you can't help herself, then no one can". I think that was her downfall, not being humble enough to reach out for help.


But who could help her if she can't help herself?

#5 HelloSailor

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Posted 14 October 2013 - 07:54 AM

When you're in the throws of addiction, you don't have the strength to take control, it controls you, mere willpower is not enough. That's the whole point of rehab, or 12 step therapy, to find a power outside yourself that will be the solution to your problems. I'm not saying it's a miracle solution, it doesn't work every time, there are frequent relapses, but I just think it's a shame Amy never gave it a real go. She stuck to medication (subutex etc.), which just replaces one drug with another, but never dealt with the underlying (psychological) problems because she wasn't interested in discussing her issues. It takes courage to open up to self-analysis, and while she poured her heart out in songs and was brutally frank in her art, Amy was reticent to do the same in her personal life.
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