If not, you’ve been living under a rock, because Amy Winehouse is one of the baddest b*tches on the music scene. An edgy woman known for her devil-may-care attitude and excessive partying, ginormous beehived hair, and heavily-lined eyelids…

…this British Jewish chick’s got a voice that is one of the most phenomenally soulful things to emerge since Lauryn Hill’s was given broad exposure in her seminal work, Miseducation.

Alas, L-Boogie never seemed to completely fulfill the promise, considering how extraordinarily talented she is. But there’s still time and everybody deserves the chance to regroup. Ms. Hill’s the type to wear her deepest emotions on her sleeve, and, artistically, I imagine that can be pretty exhausting, especially when you’ve gone through quite a few major personal changes in the face of huge success. Maybe she’s about to break out in an even bigger way. I hope so. I’m a huge fan.

As for Amy, I’ve been listening to an import of her cd, Back To Black…

…since the fall, and it finally dropped here in the States…

…two weeks ago.

One of our more animated and highly-vocal Lo Zoners (Sheletha) and I spoke briefly about her yesterday, and I mentioned that I’d planned on doing a post about Ms. Winehouse this week because I hadn’t seen any talk on The Lo Zone about her in my absence. You should have definitely seen this woman by now on pretty much every late night talk show around, performing her hit song, “Rehab,” (a tune that was written as a response to her management’s request that she go to rehab and get herself together because they thought she was partying too much). The tone of this cd, her sophomore effort, evokes the Sixties-era singers, and her camp style and big hair plays right into the whole effect. If you haven’t seen her perform the song yet, here it is:

And just for Sheletha, here’s her doing the song “Me & Mr. Jones (Fuckery).”

Finally, here she is doing a live version of “Rehab” on Letterman. I watched this performance the night it aired and the brothers dancing and singing in the background were killing it and damn near stole the performance (even Dave was fascinated by them).

Ahhhhhh, blackdammit…might as well make it a four-fer. Here she is singing “You Know I’m No Good.” Enjoy!!!

Alright, alright, alright…one mo’ ‘gin. This is actually one of my favorite songs on the cd. Here’s Amy, live, singing “Some Unholy War,” a song that straight-up sounds like something Lauryn Hill definitely could have made. Enjoy!!!

(Don’t never say I ain’t never gave y’all a concert…on a Tuesday, no less. Who’s the woman??!!! Say my name!!!)

Amazon.com: Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
Amy Winehouse on MySpace