The tabloid News of the World is reporting that Grammy winner Amy Winehouse continues to be involved with drugs, despite her recent stay in rehab. The tabloid has obtained still photos and video depicting Amy and her new husband Blake Fielder-Civil hanging out in a purported crack den, singing racist songs and performing sexual acts.
Winehouse’s career really took off in 2007, and the London-based singer won the Grammy award for song of the year. But despite all of her success, Winehouse appears to be caught in a cycle of drug abuse and drama. Last year London police were sent a video that appeared to show Winehouse smoking crack in a London slum. Police questioned the singer for nine hours about the contents of the video, but in the end decided not to press charges.
A more recent video, available on the News of the World’s web site, appears to show Amy and her new husband cavorting in a dingy apartment somewhere in London, with drug paraphernalia strewn all around the room. At one point Winehouse and an unidentified friend began singing the children’s tune “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” but replaced the original lyrics with a racist chant:
“Blacks, Pakis, Gooks and Nips!” Later on, the two sing, “And deaf and dumb and blind and gay!”
Anti-defamation groups have been outraged by Winehouse’s comments on the video, and on Sunday she appeared in front of her London home to make a public apology for the racist lyrics heard in the video.
Perhaps even more disturbing than the racists comments is the subtext of the video itself. In one scene, the camera pulls back to reveal a coffee table strewn with cigarette lighters, rolling papers and what appears to be a quantity of heroin. Another scene shows Winehouse holding what looks like an improvised crack pipe made from a small medicine bottle. The floors of the dingy apartment were also littered with small scraps of aluminum foil — a material often used to heat up crack cocaine “rocks.”
Another section of the video shows Amy and husband Blake lying on a bed, exchanging small white pills that appear to be ecstasy.
None of these revelations of drug abuse are particularly surprising within the music industry, but Winehouse has risen so far so fast that many are now concerned that she will become just another casualty of the rock ‘n roll lifestyle. While she certainly has great talent as a singer, she is also clearly a drug addict — and one who desperately needs help.
