The funeral of Amy Winehouse has taken place this afternoon. Winehouse was cremated at a private setting, attended by family and friends. Collaborator Mark Ronson, friend Kelly Osbourne (who sported a blonde beehive haircut) and boyfriend Reg Traviss were among the mourners. Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, currently serving a prison sentence for burglary, was not granted compassionate leave to attend the service.
An attendee told Sky News that Winhouse's father Mitch "told some great stories from childhood about how headstrong she was, and clearly the family and friends recognised the stories and laughed along. He stressed so many times she was happier now than she had ever been and he spoke about her boyfriend and paid tribute to a lot of people in her life".
The post-mortem which took place yesterday proved inconclusive as to the cause of her death. Toxicology results will be due in the coming weeks which will perhaps shed light on the circumstances which claimed singer's life last Saturday.
As has been said by many media commentators up to now Winehouse has become the latest member of the so-called "27 Club", a group populated by musicians who died too young and all struggled with addiction throughout their lives. This, though, is all too dismissive a term for Winehouse, or any other supposed "member". These people - Winehouse, Joplin, Cobain etc. - all shared a self-destructive aspect to their personalities, a trait which, for many, made them so fascinating to watch. But they all, either privately or publicly, made efforts at one point or another to seek help.
Amy Winehouse was clearly a person stricken with a crippling addiction, an aspect of her character which she couldn't contain. While it's admittedly difficult to defend someone who recorded a song in which she directly disparaged the concept of drug rehabilitation, the air of inevitability as the news broke on Saturday was perhaps the saddest thing about her demise. This was a person who we all watched on 24 hour news cycles and on tabloid front pages slowly hurt herself until she could take no more.
Amy Winehouse 1983 - 2011
