When Amy Winehouse‘s breakthrough album, Back to Black, hit U.S. shores in early 2007, it was hard to say which Winehouse was a bigger mess: the lovelorn persona on record who explicitly said no to rehab, or the drunken persona in public whose YouTubeable antics implicitly said no to rehab. Mere months later, that the latter had the much bigger problem was abundantly clear. Like oh-my-god-she-really-might-die-any-second-right-in-front-of-our-eyes clear.
Though capable of temporary composure (like her gorgeous performance of “Love Is a Losing Game” at the Mercury Prize Awards), Winehouse has spent the past year or so in a drug-induced haze. Publicity shots of her looking positively zonked appear virtually daily on blogs, and a YouTube clip surfaced in which she pulls something from her hair and seems to snort it.
Scarily enough, Winehouse might not have hit rock bottom yet – one report suggests that she took drugs while in rehab for heroin use earlier this year. Amy’s father also announced that his daughter’s cigarette- and crack-smoking habits have caused the early stages of emphysema in the singer, though her mouthpiece was quick to correct that, announcing that she has “early signs of what could lead to emphysema.” What a relief!
And the latest: Winehouse has just been hospitalized for mixing prescription drugs.
