london | Wearing dark suits, black dresses and the occasional beehive hairdo, friends and family said goodbye to British soul diva Amy Winehouse at an emotional July 26 funeral ceremony.
The Jewish service at Edgwarebury Cemetery in north London was led by a rabbi and included prayers in English and Hebrew and reminiscences from Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse.
Mitch, a cab driver and jazz singer who helped foster his daughter’s love of music, ended his eulogy with the words, “Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much.”
The service ended with a rendition of Carole King’s “So Far Away,” one of Amy Winehouse’s favorite songs.
After the ceremony, close family and friends — including Winehouse’s recent boyfriend, Reg Traviss — moved on to Golders Green Crematorium, where the singer was cremated. The family was then due to sit shiva for two days.
Amy Winehouse photo/ap/victor r. calvano
Winehouse, a five-time Grammy winner who was admired by music critics and beloved by celebrities, was found dead in her London home July 23. She was 27.
Winehouse was plagued by drug and alcohol addiction, but an autopsy held July 25 failed to determine what caused her death. While police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which will take two to four weeks, the British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported this week that a lethal combination of alcohol and drugs was believed to have caused her death.
“The bad girl with the pin-up tattoos, soul style and Marilyn Monroe mole piercing was born to Mitchell and Janis, a Jewish couple in north London,” according to a report in the Jewish publication Moment Magazine.
Writing earlier this year for the online magazine Tablet, Dvorah Meyers asserted that the singer’s “unrepentant behavior … signals Winehouse’s place in a very different line of Jewish women — not the ‘nice’ ones who make you chicken soup when you’re sick or assure their sons that they’re the smartest boys in the world and any woman would be lucky to marry them.”
Instead, Meyers wrote, “Winehouse’s ancestors are the biblical vixens: Dina, who slept with Shechem; Deborah, the biblical heroine; or, more recently, Monica Lewinsky.”
In January 2009, with hostilities raging between Israeli and Hamas forces, Winehouse was one of several prominent Jewish figures identified by an Islamic extremist website as potential targets for “reprisal” attacks.
At her funeral, the singer’s father, mother and brother were joined by Winehouse’s close friends, band members and celebrities. Media personality Kelly Osbourne was one of several women to wear her hair piled beehive-high in an echo of the singer’s trademark style.
Fans and photographers thronged the lane outside, but the funeral was for several hundred friends and family only.
According to the Press Association news agency, Mitch Winehouse said during the ceremony that his daughter was trying to overcome her addictions, having told him: “Dad, I’ve had enough, I can’t stand the look on your and the family’s faces anymore.”
He said he planned to set up a foundation in his daughter’s name to help people struggling with addiction.
Family friend Alfie Ezekiel, 55, said the service had been a “joyful” celebration of the singer’s life. “Mitch gave a very good eulogy and he managed to get through it very well, considering,” he said.
Winehouse released only two albums in her short career — winning five Grammy awards for “Back to Black” — and often made headlines because of drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, destructive relationships and abortive performances. During a comeback performance in Serbia last month, Winehouse was booed off the stage after staggering around.
Singer George Michael called her “the most soulful vocalist this country has ever seen,” and soul singer Adele said she “paved the way for artists like me and made people excited about British music again.”
JTA contributed to this report.
Related article: Addiction is real — for Amy Winehouse and for other Jews