Amy Winehouse’s Career Crisis
With current technology and the Internet, celebrities lives are less private and easily monitored the simple hit of the refresh button. Amy Winehouse is a Grammy award winning singer with a voice that shines promise and talent. The only thing in the way of her career are her poor decisions. Amy has been spiraling down with a severe addiction to various illegal drugs. Recently a video was leaked showing her smoking crack.
The vast majority of major publications have been negative to Winehouse’s addiction. There is a lack of approval of her public appearances and poor live performances. Questions are being raised about her health and if she will face a career collapse like Britney Spears. Although the articles do not have pictures of Amy at her worst, articles have descriptions such as “sucking in crack fumes in a glass pipe” and her excuse for taking Valium to “Bring myself down.” Winehouse stayed in rehab to improve her conditions and overcome the dangers of drug addiction. Her representative also stated “Amy has regular appointments with a doctor at the Nightingale hospital. I’ve spoken to her and she is in good spirits and walking tall.” Since the release of the video, many other quotes have also revealed the various drugs Winehouse uses in the lyrics of her songs. Despite her dangerous levels of drug usage, everyone hopes that she does recovery and not suffer an early death like other young musicians with amazing talent.
In the blogging world it seems Amy is vilified. Various headlines mock her name by calling her things such as “Amy Wino” and portray her as a drug addict who then became successful. One blog even has a quote from Courtney love stating “But I’ve never seen someone take as much coke as Amy. Even I wasn’t that bad.” The worst photos are often used when talking about her, which is never a positive subject, and everything from her actions to her appearance is critiqued. Bloggers tend to portray her as just another celebrity who becomes famous and destroys all their success.
The Bloggers and the press both accurately describe Winehouse’s addiction. The both also do not approve or condone her drug uses. This is the only two similarities shared by the news sources. Bloggers belittle Amy while the news articles hope for a recovery. While it is amusing to poke fun about someone’s situation, constant negativity is excessive and in bad taste. Bloggers can state their opinions without the worry of losing their job and this freedom allows them to say whatever they please. This may be why they quickly turn and hold little respect for celebrities.
I think Amy’s Publicist did the correct steps in this situation. Once all the facts were gathered, a statement was made on the behalf of Amy. This statement did not deny any allegations but rather informed the audience what Amy is doing to resolve the situation. All the correct PR moves were done to keep this situation from becoming any worse than it is. This statement also allows Amy to do positive things to improve her tarnished image. Amy is on the breakthrough of her career and she needs to do more positive things to improve the public’s opinion about her.
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Mainstream Media Sources
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article715263.ece
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-al.eye10feb10,0,554213.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/arts/music/24wine.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324549,00.html
Blog Sources
http://thesuperficial.com/2008/01/amy_winehouse_enters_rehab.php
http://www.damnimcute.com/the-juicy/courtney-love-winehouse-biggest-cokehead-ive-seen/
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2701_amy_winehouse_living_dead.shtml
http://britmusicscene.com/amy-winehouse-is-suicidal-refusing-rehab-even-after-drugs-collapse/
