Amy Winehouse: They Told Me That I Won A Grammy And I Said Yes, Yes, Yes!
She did it!
Amy Winehouse, the rehabbing bluesy vixen with the voice of a soulful black woman in a skinny beehived retro body, took home five Grammys Sunday night and performed her hits "You Know I'm No Good" and "Rehab" via satellite from London.
And let me tell you something...I was almost in tears watching her performance. I was totally enraptured by this Amy...a far cry from the spitting, surly, stoned slip of a girl we'd watched her waste away to, sinking ever farther in the muck and mire of a drug habit gone totally out of control. That Amy made me want to cry, too, albeit out of a sadness that this talent was slowly killing herself for a temporary fix. But this Amy is well on her way back.
The shimmy of her songs was coy, brash, awkward, and self-conscious, all at once...she spent her set physically jerking the songs out of her soul, leaving you wondering just what it was about this little girl that was so appealing, and at the end not caring because of the velvety sandpaper that was her Voice. It roughed you up and smoothed you down all at the same time, leaving you gaping openmouthed and wanting more. The glint in her eye and sly smile as she performed her hit "Rehab" let you know that yes, she was in on the irony, and that that she was perfectly capable of poking some fun at her recent troubles while at the same time reestablishing herself as a driving force in music today.
I've listened to her Grammy performance the whole time I've been writing this and it just gets better and better. One thing I noticed right off is that her band and backup dancers actually look happy to be there, unlike previous performances. I certainly hope she can keep this up, because if she can, she'll have a huge career ahead of her.
And what about that shellshocked look when she won? She looked like a little girl who just won an award in kindergarten and wasn't quite sure why, yet was really sure that she wanted that prize.
Plus, how can you not love a backup band with both a tenor AND baritone sax? You gotta love a bari sax scoop! I am seriously coveting those!
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