Anyone with an eye or ear to the music scene has heard of the reputation Amy Winehouse has earned concerning her live shows. However, none of the gossip stopped me from buying a ticket to see her perform on May 5th in Philadelphia. It also didn't stop thousands across the country, as every single one of her USA concerts sold out.

The eccentric Patrick Wolf was Amy’s opener for this tour. His music was a bit off the wall - mix of pop, rock and electronic. He did about 6-7 songs to get the crowd warmed up. After exiting the stage, a brief 15 minute intermission took place before the fantastic Dap Kings (Amy's USA tour band) and her two backup singers took the stage.

Yells, cheers and applause erupted as Amy strolled out and began singing the clever and catchy tune "Addicted." I was surprised to hear it, since it was left off the US release of Back to Black. Luckily, I ordered the import and was hyped to hear the song live.

So far, so good.

Amy jumped around BTB including "Love Is A Losing Game," title track, “Back To Black,” "Tears Dry On Their Own," and "He Can Only Hold Her," which ended with a small excerpt from Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)."

The crowd got even louder when the opening chords to "You Know I'm No Good" came on. Everyone starting dancing (with what little room we had) and singing word for word, to which Amy cracked a little smile and made the comment – “Oh, I see you know this one.” The laughter then turned melancholy when she belted out ballads, "Wake Up Alone," and "Just Friends." She also visited debut album 'Frank,' by performing the short interlude "Cherry," and comical track, "F*** Me Pumps."

After joking around about the last song not really being the last song, the stage cleared, but only for about 3 minutes before Amy and the band came back to perform encore songs, "Me and Mr. Jones," and hit, "Rehab."

Amy's singing was flawless and the fabulous instrumentation of the Dap Kings appropriately complemented her vintage-esque voice. Once she got in front of the mic there was no question why tickets to her sold-out shows were going for more than 10 times face value on Ebay!

Philly actually got a double dose of Amy, as she was a surprise guest the following night at the Black Lily Celebration, which featured other talents such as ?uestlove (who played drums for Amy’s set), Jazzyfatnastees, and Jill Scott. She only did 2 songs, but for those of us who saw her the night before - it was an extra treat.

She did go on a few rambling tangents during her full concert, but I really didn’t care – my purpose was to hear the exceptional lyrics through the unique voice that she possesses. I walked away from the weekend content that my desire had been satisfied to the fullest.


Deesha Dyer is a contributing writer for Giant Step. For more information about Deesha and her work, please point your browser to the links below.

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