Winehouse denied visa for Grammys

[porcy62]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7234002.stm

Winehouse denied visa for Grammys

Amy Winehouse will not perform at this year's Grammy awards ceremony because her US visa application has been rejected by the embassy in London.

The singer was arrested for marijuana possession in Norway last year.

A spokesman for the troubled star said she was "disappointed", but had "accepted the ruling and will be concentrating on her recovery".

Winehouse has been nominated for six Grammy awards ahead of the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

[7/4]

Shocking. I never saw that coming.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Let's see, if we ban everybody who smokes weed from the Grammies there might be an open seat or two, no?

[Big Al]

NO, NO, NO!!!

[Chuck Nessa]

Why oh why would Norway cause all this trouble????? Isn't lutefisk enough to impose on humanity?

[Christiern]

Let's face it, Winehouse is as messed up as she is over-rated.

[MoGrubb]

Her notoriety is almost a guarantee that she'll win a Grammy.

[jlhoots]

Let's face it, Winehouse is as messed up as she is over-rated.

I agree that she's "messed up".

I don't agree that she's "over-rated" or untalented.

[Christiern]

One can be talented, yet over-rated.

[7/4]

Ahch...she's OK. I wouldn't worry too much about it...too bad she's got a drug problem.

[MoGrubb]

One can be talented, yet over-rated.

Agreed. If you look at her just in the pop idiom that she's operating from then she's super talented. Take/look at her in the greater scheme of things/music and she's a small fish in a large pond(not meant to take anything away from her).

Anyhow, I hope she cleans up and I wish her the best.

[bTW, I saw a YouTube clip where the band seemed to be making "fun" out of her style. If I was her, after I cleaned up, I'd stop that shit cold.]

Edited February 8, 2008 by MoGrubb

[Aggie87]

I've never heard any of her music - is she worth checking out at all? There seems to be alot more hype about her lifestyle than what she's actually produced.

[7/4]

previous thread.

[Christiern]

I've never heard any of her music - is she worth checking out at all? There seems to be alot more hype about her lifestyle than what she's actually produced.

You ought to check her out, if for no other reason than to be able to form an opinion.

I think her apparent popularity reflects today's lowered standards. There was a time when an artist could rise to the top based in large part on his/her talent, today they either have to be super-hyped or strenuously bizarre to stand out. That's MHO.

[Alexander]

I've never heard any of her music - is she worth checking out at all? There seems to be alot more hype about her lifestyle than what she's actually produced.

You ought to check her out, if for no other reason than to be able to form an opinion.

I think her apparent popularity reflects today's lowered standards. There was a time when an artist could rise to the top based in large part on his/her talent, today they either have to be super-hyped or strenuously bizarre to stand out. That's MHO.

The thing is (at least in the US), Winehouse was already standing out through her music. I know she's been tabloid fodder in the UK for some time, but in the US people didn't start paying any attention to her problems until her music got wide exposure. Have her problems brought her more exposure than she might have had otherwise? Sure. Is it the wrong kind of exposure? Most definitely. Would she still be famous if she weren't so messed up? I think she would be. She stood out in the 21st century pop scene because (like Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, and Mick Jagger before her) she's a Brit who effectively performs American R&B. It sounds different from other American pop music at the moment.

[robviti]

i find nothing funny, amusing, or entertaining about a heroin addict with a hit song about refusing to go to rehab. it's just sad and stupid imo. as far as her talent goes, i'll wait until she sobers up (if she ever does) and make my decision based on whatever's left.

[jlhoots]

i find nothing funny, amusing, or entertaining about a heroin addict with a hit song about refusing to go to rehab. it's just sad and stupid imo. as far as her talent goes, i'll wait until she sobers up (if she ever does) and make my decision based on whatever's left.

That viewpoint must severely limit your jazz listening.

[Christiern]

jlhoots, please give us a list of addicted jazz artists who made recordings about not wanting to enter rehab.

[jlhoots]

jlhoots, please give us a list of addicted jazz artists who made recordings about not wanting to enter rehab.

That's not the point. Has nothing to do with song writing or type of musical material.

Many addicted jazz artists never went to rehab. A good number just died prematurely.

FWIW, I believe she has now gone to rehab., for whatever good it will do.

I know she's a substance abuser, but I don't recall heroin being the offending drug.

Did you stop listening to Miles, Getz, Trane, Mobley, Blakey, Sonny Clark, Warne Marsh, etc., etc., etc. until they cleaned up? I didn't.

If one doesn't care for the music, that's fine. I just don't believe that lifestyle should determine who you listen to, read, or even the paintings you look at.

jazzshrink (or anyone else) can use that as a determining factor. I don't.

[ejp626]

You can agree or (obviously) disagree, but jazzshrink is drawing a distinction about someone being wilfully defiant, even celebratory about their drug use (compared to jazz musicians who were drug addicts but tried to keep it on the down low), and thus not wanting to support that kind of art. FWIW, Amy's parents have asked the public to stop buying her records and giving her awards until she truly cleans up her act, so they do see there is some connection.

[Christiern]

Comparing Winehouse to Miles, Getz, Trane, Mobley, Blakey, Sonny Clark, Warne Marsh, etc. does not make any sense. I think you have misunderstood some of the posts. Some of us don't hear a talent in this performer that can overcome the factors upon which this thread is based. If she did not have all these problems, I doubt very much if she would have become as well known as she apparently is. If she had anything remotely resembling the talent that the musicians you mentioned had, I could find the publicity valid, but I hear a messed-up performer trying too hard to sound "with it." We live in an age where "singers" often are that by definition rather than by any previously accepted meaning of the term. While I think Winehouse is better than most of the new crop, I feel that her talent--as recorded, so far--is not commensurate with the attention she attracts.

Just so you know, hoots, I have never allowed an artist's lifestyle to influence my assessment of his/her performance, nor is that the case here, I just don't think Winehouse is an artist notable for her performances. I hope she does sober up and that manages to stay sober. I also hope she becomes a more interesting artist. Considering the very low standard to which NARAS has sunk in recent years, I hope you are not impressed by her Grammy nominations, so I assume that you really like her singing--I just don't. Dif'rent strokes....

[jlhoots]

So if her music was "better" her lifestyle wouldn't matter.

I don't give a "hoot" about the Grammys (any category).

I just enjoy both of her CDs.

Edited February 8, 2008 by jlhoots

[Christiern]

You are misreading me, again. If her music was better, as you say, it, rather than her lifestyle, might generate the publicity. Her lifestyle does not matter to me, per se, but no one wants to see another person destroy themselves, much less destroy artistry in the process.

[Christiern]

It is said that the State Dept. changed its mind and she will be at the Grammy Awards show.

[7/4]

February 8, 2008

Winehouse Gets Visa, Too Late for Awards

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:49 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Amy Winehouse's visa came through, but not in time for the rehabbing singer to make the trip to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards, her representatives said Friday.

Winehouse will go ahead with her backup plan to perform live via satellite from a studio in London, where she would also be available to accept any awards she may win during Sunday's ceremony. Winehouse and her acclaimed ''Back to Black'' album are nominated for Grammys in six categories.

''Unfortunately, due to the logistics involved and timing complications, Amy will not be traveling to the U.S. to perform at the Grammys in person,'' the Outside Organization said in a statement.

Winehouse's original visa application was denied under U.S. immigration rules regarding the ''use and abuse of narcotics,'' a senior State Department official said Friday, on condition of anonymity because the U.S. Embassy in London's application deliberations are confidential.

The Department of Homeland Security had been ''rapidly'' processing her appeal, the official said. But the reversal, barely 48 hours before the beginning of the telecast, came too late.

''Amy would like to thank all of those people, in particular the staff involved at the U.S. Embassy in London, who have all worked so hard to expedite her application,'' Outside said. ''She is looking forward to being a part of the 50th Annual Grammy Awards with her Sunday night performance and to going back to the U.S. soon.''

Winehouse's potent blend of blues, jazz, pop and soul has won praise from critics and fans, but her chaotic personal life has increasingly upstaged her music. Concerned family members regularly beg Winehouse to seek help in letters splashed across the pages of British tabloid newspapers and magazines.

Last month, The Sun newspaper ran still images from a video that it claimed showed Winehouse inhaling fumes from a small pipe. The images were said to have been filmed during a party at her London home.

Shortly thereafter, Winehouse entered a London rehabilitation center, and has been questioned by police. Outside said earlier Friday that she was leaving the center to prepare for her performance. It added that the singer would remain under medical supervision.

Other British music acts have had difficulty securing visas. Lily Allen was scheduled to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards in September, but the pop star's visa was revoked. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services hasn't commented, but her manager has said he suspected it was because Allen was arrested in London in June after an altercation with photographers.