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rapper Kanye West a c**t . Thank you, and good night.
This was almost the last that live audiences were to see of Amy for a while,
because she had by this stage been diagnosed with emphysema according to her father.
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Theres a small amount there which hasn t gone too far and it s completely repairable,
said Mitch. He added that she would therefore be taking a break from live performances
once her contractual obligations had been fulfilled. Mitch, who had by this time become
something of a celebrity himself, was trying his hardest to bring some serenity into his
daughter s life.
Meanwhile, Amy was once more appearing in media polls, both positively and
negatively. For instance, she appeared in the NME s 2008 Villain of the Year poll, but
also in the same title s Best Solo Artist and Best DVD polls. Glamour magazine named
her the third-worst dressed British woman, but then Sky News viewers named her the
second-greatest Ultimate Heroine. She had topped the voting among viewers under 25
years old. These polls are a mere selection of those she graced, and reflect perfectly the
love her or hate her, you can t ignore her position Amy occupies in the public psyche.
Her relationship with Blake has always been a mixed bag, too. When he was
released from prison in November 2008, he checked straight into rehab in Surrey. Far
from rushing to see him, Amy was instead photographed out and about in London, up to
her normal late-night jolly japes. She failed to see him at all during his first month of
freedom, even when he launched an (unsuccessful) bid to appeal against his conviction.
The grapevine was soon abuzz with rumours that she was in the process of divorcing
Blake. It s over. There s no way back for us now, Amy is said to have told friends. It
was never going to last. I fancied him like mad, like no one else I ve ever known. But it s
not enough, is it? Amy would have to travel far and wide to find anyone who believed
she should stay with Blake. Soon after she prepared to dump Blake, he reportedly
admitted in a taped interview to News of the World what many had long suspected: that
he introduced Amy to hard drugs.
I introduced her to heroin, crack cocaine and self-harming, said Blake. I feel
more than guilty. The first time Amy took crack she asked me, Can I try a bit of that?
Crack is the nastiest drug. It makes you paranoid, unreasonable, edgy and totally
suspicious of everyone.
And you can get hooked on it straight away. But I was weak and an addict and I
let Amy take some. I didn t stop it from happening. For that I take full responsibility. It
became something we did as well as heroin. And then our lives fell apart. It is to be
hoped both parties can rebuild their lives separately.
As Blake made this confession, Amy was once again in hospital, her fourth
hospitalisation in 2008. It had been a strange year for her, during which her immense
musical talent and the magnetic charm of her best live performances became secondary
concerns. What she instead became known for was her ability to spark negative press
stories about her painfully thin body, her drink and drug use and other controversies.
Things got so wild that at one point her father Mitch attempted to have her sectioned to a
mental institution. With the media following her every move, Amy seemed to many to be
on an unstoppable downward spiral.
Where was the music among all this chaos? It was there for anyone who cared to
look beyond the shock horror of the tabloids. Back To Black continued to shift
throughout the world, with its 11million-plus sales contributing to her topping the charts
in the United States. A deluxe version of the album was released in the UK and quickly
topped the charts here, too. Back To Black is one of the top ten bestselling albums of the
21st century and royalties from its sales constitute a large slice of her estimated
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£10million personal fortune. Whatever problems she has in her personal life, Amy has no
trouble shifting albums.
Nor in gathering serious musical awards. In May 2008 she was once more
nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello award, and once more she was triumphant. She
won the award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Love is a Losing Game . Amy
was also nominated in the same category for You Know I m No Good . Organisers said
that it was the first time that an artist had been twice-nominated in the category since the
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