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AMY WINEHOUSE - BELGRADE 2011

May 22, 2023 – 7:23 am

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AMY WINEHOUSE
Belgrade 2011 [no label, 1CD]
Kalemegdan, Belgrade, Serbia; June 18, 2011. Passable audio, ripped from fan-shot video (?).

Thanks to hetzjagd for sharing the video at Dime.

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Amy Winehouse’s final concert. The singer passed away on July 23, 2011 due to alcohol poisoning. She was 27. On June 18, 2011, Winehouse started her 12-leg European tour in Belgrade. Local media described her performance as a scandal and disaster; she was booed off the stage due to her apparently being too drunk to perform. On June 21, it was announced that she had cancelled all shows of her tour and would be given “as long as it takes” to sort herself out.

Winehouse’s last public appearance took place at Camden’s Roundhouse on July 20, 2011, when she made a surprise appearance on stage to support her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, who was singing “Mama Said” with the Wanted. Winehouse died three days later. - wikipedia

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Alex Needham, theguardian.com:

Amy Winehouse’s gig in Belgrade has been called the worst concert ever to take place in the city. Even Serbian defence minister Dragan Sutanovac put the boot in, calling it “a huge shame and a disappointment”.

Audience members have inundated YouTube with clips from the concert showing a sozzled Winehouse leading a startled backing dancer to sing Valerie, taking her shoe off for no apparent reason, and giving up halfway through Just Friends in order to introduce the band - whose names she struggles to remember.

Much has been made of the fact that audience members paid £35 a ticket in a country where the average wage is £274 a month - though that is hardly her fault.

Yet was the gig really that bad? While addiction is clearly no laughing matter, the elements of the gig Winehouse is being pilloried for are praised in other musicians. As music critic Simon Price pointed out on Twitter, when Bob Dylan renders his back catalogue unrecognisable, as he did in London’s Finsbury Park at the weekend, people think he’s a maverick genius. When Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner stops singing Mardy Bum and lets the crowd take over, people applaud it as a communal moment. When Robbie Williams has a wardrobe malfunction - according to the Sun, his penis fell out onstage in Dublin - it’s a laugh rather than a cause for concern.

Winehouse is now typecast as a troubled diva. Yet watching her rendition of Back to Black on YouTube, to my ears it’s not even that bad. Sure she sings around the tune, but she’s always done that - she’s a jazz singer. Her rendition of Just Friends is listless (to put it mildly), but it never had much of a tune in the first place. Though admittedly hindered by booze, the musician in Winehouse is still trying to put a new spin on songs she must be heartily sick of by now. If the people of Belgrade wanted note-perfect versions, perhaps they should have stayed at home and listened to the records.

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Track 01. Just Friends/Tears Dry On Their Own 8:59
Track 02. Some Unholy War/Back to Black 8:40
Track 03. Love Is a Losing Game 2:44
Track 04. You Know I’m No Good 4:21
Track 05. Valerie (The Zutons cover) 3:25
Track 06. You’re Wondering Now 2:40
31 mins

Extra
Track 07. Addicted 2:49

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