Amen Amy

I'm not one for religion as you know, but Amen, originally from the Hebrew for 'truly' - if my online sources are to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt them - is a fitting tribute to one of the most authentic, talented and true artists of our times: Amy Winehouse.

But the most fitting tribute of all is the recent documentary film of her life Amy which is breaking box-office records for documentary viewer-ship and with good reason: it's a great film of a truly great star.

My good man and I were two of the first people in NZ to hurry out to see Amy and were even more impressed and moved than we'd expected to be, which is quite impressed and moved indeed.

There's nothing much I can add to the accolades about this soulful songstress extraordinaire, except to rail, once again, against the mainstream (male) media that played a big part in her undoing - as the documentary shows - in failing to understand or care how vulnerable she was to overexposure as a young female artist with fragile self-esteem and body-image/beauty issues, who never believed she could or even ever wanted to be rich or famous. She just wanted to be loved. And so she is.  Amen Amy.