After the tragic news of Amy Winehouse’s death at the desperately tender of 27, numerous features, articles, television programmes and tributes began to saturate the media. From everyday people on Twitter, to Russell Brands’ poignant, accurate open letter regarding the tumultuous trials of addiction, one of the key focal points for people, apart from her general vulnerability and drug addiction, was that of her voice.
Whilst I do not find it unusual that people would choose to focus on her profound talent, I do find it rather odd how exactly they are determining her vocal abilities. Most tributes I have seen have vaguely sketched over the magnitude of her vocal abilities, providing simple statements such as “she had a perfect voice” or “she displayed such vocal talent”, which in no way reflect the true and unusual style of Amy’s voice that made her so successful and so unique in music.
In actual fact, traditionally speaking, Amy Winehouse did not typically exhibit a fantastic voice. Her vocal timbre, even when she was sober, was often constricted, with an interesting grate. She did not always enunciate correctly, and her higher notes were much weaker than her stronger, more rounded, lower register. But the literal sound of her voice, its literal, dissected sound, is not what made Amy a fantastic singer. Amy knew, probably instinctually, how to make her voice sound real and honest, like her voice was an extension of her soul. Her voice had a true, honest character, real intrigue, and really, truly represented the lyrical content of her songs. Her lyrical writing was beyond perfect – classic jazz riddled with modern-day complex, emotional, harrowing blues. In Amy’s songs she laid bare her emotional struggles, with love, with addiction and with life. But it was in Amy’s delivery of the lyrics, the combination of her poetic and insightful words mixed with her candid, unadorned voice that the crux of her real vocal talent was to be found.
Her voice was expressive, perfectly indicative of her problems, and by extension perhaps the human condition in general. We might not all be addicted to drugs and alcohol, or live our lives under an uncomfortable limelight, but we have all felt heartbreak, distress, despondency and fatigue. Amy conveyed these feelings for us, as all good poets, artists, writers and musicians do. She was an emotional conduit, from her awkward and impossible problems into the music, then out into the world. In her voice, its every inflection, every faultlessly positioned pause, every vocal crack, every change of timbre, Amy added more meaning, more expression, conveyed her point more resolutely, displaying her troubles and her emotions perfectly.
That is what made her voice so good, why she has been so popular, and why her and her music will be remembered. It is not the literal style and sound of her voice that is most vital, it is the chain of events, from her life, to her lyrics, to her performing them that made her voice work. It is impossible to synthesise such vocal character, you have to live those words. Amy did just that, and whilst her death is a tragedy to her family and a great loss to the world of music, without the problems or fragility that perhaps ultimately lead to her demise, she would perhaps not have been able to hone her voice/lyrics matrix in such poignant ways.
