Everything posted by designer_label
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Blake begs Winehouse not to leave him
Amy Winehouse's husband has begged the troubled singer not to leave him in an emotional love letter. Blake Fielder-Civil feared that Amy would be furious with him for disclosing details of their turbulent relationship to his mother Georgette, who then gave an exclusive interview to a Sunday newspaper. Georgette explained that her son had threatened to divorce Winehouse if she did not check into rehab, and revealed how the star had fallen asleep during visits to jailed Blake. In his letter to Amy, Blake has vowed that he will prove his loyalty to the singer and her family by disowning his parents. "Baby, oh darling. Please don't leave me Amy. I'm so worried that now you're thinking straight you'll realise I'm not worthy of you. Oh God, please don't leave me," he wrote. "I'll do anything to show you my heart and loyalty is with you." "Me and my family are finished for good. No visits, phone calls, nothing," he continued. "I love my new family and can't wait to show them I'm not just a f****** loser and that I can look after their daughter. That's if you can find it in your heart to trust me. "Your my family now, if you'll all have me. Pls don't leave me Amy, Pls. I love you so much, Blake xxx." Amy's father Mitch Winehouse confirmed to the News of the World: "Amy was furious with Georgette's attack - but Blake's letter left her in tears. She asks you to publish it to show how determined they are to beat drugs and save their marriage and their lives. I support that - as long as it is a drug-free relationship."
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Woes of Amy Winehouse fuel her allure
She generated almost deafening buzz last year, but industry insiders, pop culture bloggers and pop music fans weren't just going on about Amy Winehouse's music. Sure, her sound -- a self-consciously retro blend of vintage Motown beats and punchy Stax horns overlaid with wry, self-penned lyrics -- stood out. It was all showcased on Back to Black, the British star's American debut, which is up for the album of the year award on tonight's 50th Annual Grammy Awards show. Behind Kanye West, who leads with eight nominations, the blue-eyed soul sensation is up for six shiny gramophones, including record and song of the year for her ironic hit "Rehab." Critics endlessly praised her rich woozy vocal style, dripping with Billie Holiday influences, and the record has sold more than 2 million copies. But her well-publicized troubles with drugs and alcohol have seemingly overshadowed the record and her skills. In keeping it real by defending her drug and alcohol addiction, Winehouse perpetuates an old stereotype of the downtrodden blues woman whose greatest art comes from her greatest private pains. But rather than being genuine, something about Winehouse -- the music and persona -- feels contrived. Perhaps in an attempt to be authentic, to keep it real, she seemingly has gone out of her way to make her troubles very public. And in this reality-show age where the public's appetite for self-destructive stars is almost fiendish, Winehouse absolutely shines. "She has gotten so much hype and so many nominations because of her behavior," says Neysa Ricciardi, a singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia. "In every category, there were songs and artists that I found far more compelling than Amy Winehouse." And amid all this hype, Winehouse's representatives said late Friday that she won't attend tonight's Grammys in Los Angeles. Although she resolved her visa issues with the U.S. Embassy, she'll still appear via satellite from London. Winehouse apparently decided not to stray too far from the very place she sang about never entering: rehab. "Sometimes the nominations and winners of the Grammys remind me more of a People's Choice Awards than a contest among music professionals, with just as much sway coming from the tabloids as from the persuasion of music," says Ricciardi, a voting member of the Recording Academy. Late last month -- after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors -- Winehouse checked into a treatment facility. This was days after the 24-year-old singer-songwriter was pictured in The Sun, the British tabloid, inhaling fumes from a glass pipe. The shot came from a homemade video, time-stamped Jan. 18, that shows the artist with messy blond hair, sitting in her London flat smoking what the British Sun says is crack. But that was just one in a yearlong series of pitiful Winehouse incidents caught by private and paparazzi cameras. Images of the singer looking high or inebriated on stage or wandering half-dressed and crying through a London street have been all over tabloids and the Internet. After her husband Blake Fielder-Civil was sent to jail for perverting the cause of justice after a bar fight, Winehouse stopped touring. And her drug use reportedly increased. She has said in interviews that her longtime volatile relationship with Fielder-Civil, whom she married in May, inspired the songs on Back to Black. The artist claims to have written the pain-in-my-heart lyrics during a break-up. "This situation could be looked at as a case study of Schadenfreude," says Patty Williamson, a media professor at Central Michigan University. "Schadenfreude is a German term that more or less refers to the pleasure we take in others' misfortune or humiliation. ... It can also be applied to the fascination we all have with the stories surrounding Winehouse, Britney, Lindsay Lohan and the like. However, Winehouse is one of the few paparazzi targets that has actually garnered critical praise for her talent." But with just two albums (her debut, Frank, was issued in the United States in November), there is definitely room for more development. On Back to Black, Winehouse affects soulful nuances better than her acclaimed British soul-revitalizing peer Joss Stone. With a biting, Brill Building-inspired approach and a hip-hopped Ronettes look, Winehouse has managed to stand out in a crowded field of overdone pop diva wannabes. Her sound, of course, owes much to Motown, Phil Spector and Booker T. and the MGs. But Lauryn Hill did the retro, hip-hopped soul mix more convincingly years ago. And it was the Dap-Kings, a Brooklyn-based soul-funk band known for backing the dynamic and woefully underrated Sharon Jones, that re-created the dusty, '60s sound heard on Back to Black. Despite the artifice of Winehouse's image and sound, she is genuinely talented -- a distinctive singer and a sometimes brilliantly sarcastic songwriter. There's definitely much more for her to accomplish. It will be interesting to see how she blossoms once she shakes her demons and transcends the old, tired blues-woman persona. And when or if she cleans up her act, it will be interesting to see whether the public still cares about Amy Winehouse.
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Keith Richards throws stones at Winehouse
BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has offered troubled singer Amy Winehouse some free advice on kicking the drug habit. "She should get her act together," the former junkie said during a round-table interview at the Berlin International Film Festival on Friday to promote Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones documentary "Shine a Light." The often-addled rocker paused, then added: "Apart from that, I have got nothing to say to the b****." Winehouse, 24, entered a London rehab clinic last month in hopes of kicking a destructive habit that has overshadowed her promising career. Stones frontman Mick Jagger, himself no stranger to pharmaceutical experimentation and resulting legal troubles, compared the drug problems of the present generation of Brit rock stars, such as Winehouse and Pete Doherty, to his early days when drugs became an integral part of the pop music scene. "When we were experimenting with drugs, little was known about the effects," Jagger said. "In our time there were no rehab centres like today. Anyway, I did not know about them." Sounding a bit like the 64-year-old grandfather that he is, the fitness fanatic said he couldn't understand how the younger generation, knowing the dangers of drug use, could still be users. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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Amy Winehouse local pub damaged in Camden fire
Mark Ronson and Mighty Boosh haunt Hawley Arms caught up in London blaze Amy Winehouse’s local pub, The Hawley Arms, based in London’s Camden area, has suffered severe fire damage. At around 7:10pm GMT tonight (February 9) a fire began sweeping through Camden, causing extensive damage to the famous Camden Market and surrounding properties. So far no-one is thought to have been injured by the fire. Camden is a mecca for musicians, with venues such as Barfly, the Electric Ballroom and the Underworld being located near the site of the fire. The fire is thought to have originated from a street behind the famous pub, which is frequented by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Razorlight, Mark Ronson and ‘The Mighty Boosh’’s Noel Fielding. Doug Charles-Riddler, the landlord of the pub, told Sky News: “There are lots of questions which must be answered about how the fire has spread such a distance, up to 100 yards, in such a short time. “I do not know the full extent of the damage as yet as I can't get anywhere near my pub. Obviously as I wait I am fearing the worst.” A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade explained that they would now be there for several days dampening down, and investigating the cause of the fire. They spokesperson said that the fire spread quickly due to the density of the area. They maintained that after the involvement of at least 100 firefighters working during the blaze's peak, the fire is now under control. NME
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Wino's About Thread
shame about all them tatoos - they dont look amazing do they... she would look sooo fresh without them
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Winehouse Gets Visa, Too Late for Awards
Winehouse Gets Visa, Too Late for AwardsFeb 8, 11:02 PM (ET) By RAPHAEL G. SATTER LONDON (AP) - Amy Winehouse's work visa was approved after all, but the State Department's change of heart Friday wasn't in time for her to make the trip to Sunday's Grammy Awards. Instead, the rehabbing British singer will go ahead with the backup plan that was concocted while her visa was still in limbo: a live performance, via satellite, from a studio in London where she will also accept any awards that may come her way. 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. As a British citizen, Winehouse would not normally need a visa to enter the United States - unless she wanted to work or perform. 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." Even if Winehouse had been able to board a non-stop flight from London to Los Angeles immediately after her visa came through Friday, the earliest she would have arrived would have been the wee hours of Saturday morning. That grueling itinerary would have left little time for her to rest and recover from a more than 12-hour journey, rehearse, and face the inevitable storm of attention that's been building during the will-she-or-won't-she-be-there drama of the past days. 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.
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Amy Picture Clash:4
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVE PIC PIC 1 - http://www.exclaim.ca/images/up-winehouse_lrg.jpg PIC 2 - http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/images/img_celebrity/125/HUGE_amy_winehouse.jpg
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Amy has been grated a US Visa!!!
Amy Winehouse's representatives have confirmed that the star has finally been granted a US visa. The troubled singer was originally denied entry to the States after officials at London's US Embassy allegedly found traces of an illegal drug in her blood stream. Winehouse was said to be "gutted" by the original decision as she had planned to perform live at the Grammys in Los Angeles tomorrow. However, organisers then announced plans for her to appear via satellite link from London. Despite Amy receiving permission to enter the US, her team have decided to stick with the satellite link idea due to "timing complications". Her spokesman said: "Following further discussions involving the US Embassy in London and officials in the United States, Amy Winehouse has been granted a visa to enter the United States of America. "Unfortunately, due to the logistics involved and timing complications, Amy will not be travelling to the US to perform at the Grammys in person. However, she will be performing via satellite broadcast as previously announced yesterday." DIGITALSPY
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Ronson responds to Amy romance rumours
Mark Ronson has vowed that he will not let press speculation affect his friendship with Amy Winehouse. The music producer has stayed in close contact with Amy since they worked together on her best-selling album Back To Black, but recent rumours have suggested that the pair are more than just friends. One report has claimed that Amy's husband Blake Fielder-Civil is worried that she will leave him for Ronson, while another speculated that Mark is close to losing his girlfriend Cosi Theodoli-Braschi due to his close ties with the singer. "I was talking to my girlfriend the other day when that piece about me and Amy came out. My girlfriend's friends with Amy, and she knows the truth," Ronson told the Liverpool Daily Post. "Amy is a good friend, so I'm not going to change our relationship because I'm worried the tabloids are going to make things up, even if it does mean an awkward call to my girlfriend's mum now and again. "And I will work with Amy again, we've been talking about it, definitely. She's written songs, which I've heard, and they're great. She's such an amazing songwriter."
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"Its All Rubbish!"
The kids are going back to school - LETS CANCEL THE REST OF THE TOUR... TRAGIC
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Spice Girls - 'Greatest Hits'
Its a track but isnt on the album?
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Amy denied American visa
Im sure it was done to teach her a lesson and for her to get her act together because she really wanted to be there
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Sophie's Guilty Pleasures *Updated*
I agree - yes we have heard it before - its been around 4-5 years but at least we know its really good so its kinda good promotion for her
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Sophie's Guilty Pleasures *Updated*
Update from Official Site
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Forum Progress
BLIMEY How did this happen????? ................. VERY STRANGE!!!!
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Sophie Update
Update from Sophie Hello Sophie, how are you? I’m not too bad thank you. The weather’s horrible, but I’ve got the day to myself for the first timein ages, which is quite nice. Sonny’s got lots of social appointments today. Really? Yeah, he’s meeting this friend and that friend. But it means I’ve got no excuse not to do the things I’ve been putting off. Maybe you deserve a day of chilling. No, I don’t think I do. This French DJ guy has given me some tracks that he wants me to write over and they need to be done by the end of February, so today is a really good day to get started. So you’ll listen to the track and then what? Just try and write the top line melody and the words. If it sounds happy do you have to make the lyrics happy? Well, sometimes it can work quite well to put sad words on a cherry song. People like Abba, The Carpenters and The Cardigans were always quite good at that sort of thing. But first of all I’ll have to write the vocal melody. That’s the most important thing. Does that involve a lot of la, la, la-ing? Yes! I can confirm I will definitely be la-ing. Do you find yourself la-ing other songs that already exist? That can happen, but then probably every tune has been done before in a certain way. It’s the timing of the phrasing that makes all the difference. So it’s the first time we’ve spoken in a little while. How as your Christmas? It was really lovely., thanks. I was a a little bit spaced out on Christmas Day itself, though, having just come back from the Take That tour in Manchester. I left Manchester at about 10am on Christmas Eve with Richard and Sonny, then we went back home to London, chucked a load of stuff out the care and put a load of other stuff back in and then went down to Sussex where my dad is. So I was quite tired on Christmas Day. Did you get any good presents? I got lots of lovely things actually. Richard brought me a Chanel handbag which I was pretty overshelmed by. You don’t own 20 of them already? Not at all – this is my first designer handbag! I don’t normally covet that sort of thing, but the Chanel is so classic it doesn’t really go in and out of fashion, its just a permanent staple. I really like it. And then you worked on New Year’s Eve. I did. I was in Romania. It was fun, but the gig itself was the coldest show I’ve ever done in my whole life. I thought I was going to lose a finger or something. It was freezing! Can you not wear gloves while you’re holding the microphone? Well, I was supposed to, but my brother, who was drumming, didn’t have any gloves, so I gave him mine, because he obviously had to use his hands the whole time. Did the cold affect your voice? Not really. It was more that my body was shivering. It was properly cold. I was told there would be heaters on the stage, so I brought a little dress with me, but when I got there it was obvious that the heaters weren’t going to be enough, so I wore a version of what I’d been wearing on the plane. So I did have a dress on, but it was with thick tights and a big cardigan too! Did you go out afterwards? Yeah, we went to this massive club which holds about 4,000 people. It wasn’t a house club, though. They had a live band doing covers and go-go dancers. Then when the DJs came on they played things like Jive Bunny and Wham! and stuff. It was great fun. Weren’t you DJing with Richard recently? Yes, we did our first DJ set last Friday in Shepherd’s Bush, at a place called West Rocks. And we’ve got a couple more bookings coming up. And your DJ name is Mr. & Mrs. Jones? It is! I though it was quite good. And it’s accurate! Are you available for weddings and birthday parties? Potentially, yeah. I still can’t quite take it seriously, but it’s fun. Do you do one record on, one record off? Not literally, but it does tend to work out like that. Richard plays things like Rage Against The Machine and I’ll play things like Toni Basil. So its quite eclectic. I wasn’t sure about him playing Rage Against The Machine. Richard actually bumped into Sean Rowley from Guilty Pleasures a little while ago and he told him you should always play music for girls, because girls are the ones who dance. So I thought Rage Against The Machine might be a bad choice, but it went down probably the best out of the whole set. I’ve never seen anything like it. The place went mental. Will you be setting up a website for Mr. & Mrs. Jones? I think that’s the plan. Once we’ve done a few more, we’ll do a MySpace with photos and that kind of thing. So, we should probably talk about the postponed gigs. Yeah, let’s do it. It’s been really awkward. I had to postpone the tour, but I really didn’t want to. Every singer wants to go out there on the road with their band, it’s the most fun bit! We’ve all been looking forward to it and we’ve all got loads of ideas. But, it doesn’t make any sense for anyone to tour if you haven’t got a single out. So we’ve put it back until we do. It sounds like something taken really lightly, but it really isn’t. Why has the single gone back? Well, there was quite a lot of pressure on me to get it done before Christmas, but I wasn’t really comfortable with that. I was obviously really busy with the Take That tour and then having to come down to London to try and record amidst that felt like I was slightly compromising myself. Plus, I wasn’t 100% certain that we actually had the song. Maybe we do, but it all felt a bit like putting the cart before the horse to have the pressure to get the single in time for the tour, rather than doing the tour because you’ve got the single. So what’s the latest with the single? Well, I’m waiting to get the Freemasons track back any day. I did my vocals at the beginning of the year and I’m really happy with it. And there’s a couple of other things that might turn out to be really good. But it’s really important to me that I get it right. But at the same time, you can presumably understand the fans’ frustration at the tour postponement? Completely. That’s why I went on the site and posted a message about it, and why I asked if we could give away a free download. I felt awful. I go on the website all the time to have a look what people are saying and I can completely sympathise that it was incredibly frustrating to move the tour. And the tour will definitely go ahead? Yes, it is going to happen. And you’re going to make it worth waiting for? Absolutely! I think I’ll have a better tour and a better single because we’ve not rushed it. I don’t just want to sling any old thing out there. In other recent news, you did ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ a couple of weeks ago. Yes, that was fun. I know Simon’s not everybody’s favourite, but I really like him. I think he’s funny and smart, so I was happy to do it. And it was quite strange, cos it was exactly ten years on from the only other time I’ve done it, when I was in theaudience. To clarify, you were in theaudience, but on the panel and not in the audience. Exactly! They film it for two and a half hours, but I haven’t actually watched it, because I don’t really like watching myself on telly, so I’m not sure which bits they used. But you always kick yourself for days afterwards when you suddenly think of funny things you should’ve said! And you also did the hundreds and thousands pictures with Rankin last week. Yes. That was something I couldn’t really pass us. Were you literally naked under them? Or did you have underwear on? yes, I didn’t actually get in naked, that would be ridiculous! I wouldn’t do that. I actually thought they were going to Photoshop the hundreds and thousands in, but then I got there and there was like a sandpit filled with them. I really liked Rankin, though. Actually, like the Buzzcocks thing, I did my first ever proper photoshoot with my band with Rankin, for Dazed and Confused. And this was the first time I’ve worked with him since. It seems like this is the year where I’ll do all the things I did ten years ago. What else would that include? The NME Brat Bus tour. But I don’t really fancy doing that again! So what was this hundreds and thousands thing about? It’s the National Children’s Society and they’re collecting childhood memories from all sorts of different people, from celebrities to people in shipping centres. It’s to do with the fact that the UK is apparently one of the worst places to grow up in the developed world. So they’re collecting hundreds and thousands of happy memories to remind people what a good childhood should be like. And you sitting in a sandpit of hundreds and thousands was just a good way to draw attention to that? Exactly. I did see that there was an angry letter from somewhere in the London Lite or something saying, “I don’t understand why having an apparently naked Sophie in hundreds and thousands illustrates childhood memories”. But I suppose it made for more of a talking point than me sitting there in a duffle coat! Do you keep a scrapbook of photo shoots like that? I don’t actively seek things out, but if I’ve got an article I tend to rip it out and keep it. Actually, we did some more straightforward portrait shots too and Rankin said they might go in his next book. So I’d probably get one of those if they were in there. It must be nice to have all those pictures to look back on. Definitely. I’ve been really lucky to work with some amazing photographers. I really feel like I’ve been really spoiled with it all. And have you been finding hundreds and thousands in your hair ever since? Well, I had a shower when I was there, so that washed most of them off. But when I was walking around the next day I felt like there was something in my shoe all day and, sure enough, I eventually discovered it was a hundred and thousand!
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Artist Forum League Table Positions
17 isnt bad considering there has been far less effort this week with posts and games and stuff! Will try to post loads of news updates everyday again to get us back in the top 10
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I met Sophie!
Sophies known to be tall - she deffo isnt 5'2 when I saw her she is around my height - if not taller
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I met Sophie!
Sophies known to be tall - she deffo isnt 5'2 when I saw her she is around my height - if not taller
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GH suffers big drop
Why do people think its dissapointing? this is the spice girls - alot of people already own all their songs! its really impressive I think
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[1 Pence] Headlines @ Tesco
I want it for 1p!!! does that mean if you get it on tesco online it will be even cheaper? lol
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I met Sophie!
Sophie isnt 5'2? shes taller than me and im 5'10
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Do you think one free song makes up for 2 cancelled tours?
Jonie if you want to get banned from this forum and Buzzjack your going the right way about it. Please refrain from being rude on the forums!
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Adele won't follow in Winehouse's footsteps
Soul singer Adele has vowed that she will not be following in the footsteps of troubled star Amy Winehouse. The 19-year-old, who is expected to top the UK album chart with her debut LP this weekend, revealed that she will never experiment with drugs because she is "too scared" to do so. "I've never done drugs and I never will. I'm too scared," she explained. "I don't even know any other drugs apart from ecstasy and cocaine! "People ask me if I think I'm going to end up like Amy Winehouse. First of all, I don't know how she's ended up because no one does. I just put on my iPod and listen to Back to Black and remember she's amazingly talented." Winehouse checked into rehab last week, after a video which showed her allegedly taking crack cocaine was released by a newspaper.
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Future of the Spice girls
doubt that will happen And I doubt they will ever say a final goodbye - due to the money involved but mel c has pulled out now so i cant see much of a future