.

Amy Winehouse Cancels European Tour After Concert Meltdown

Singer was booed for sloppy, incoherent performance at Serbian festival

June 20, 2011 8:49 AM ET
Amy Winehouse arrives at Belgrade airport, June 18, 2011.
Amy Winehouse arrives at Belgrade airport, June 18, 2011.
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images

Amy Winehouse has canceled her European summer tour following a trainwreck performance in Belgrade, Serbia on Saturday in which the the singer showed up an hour late, stumbled around the stage, clashed with her bandmates, slurred her words while attempting to sing her hits and tossed a shoe out into the audience. Concert-goers loudly booed Winehouse throughout the performance, and many walked out of the show.

The Belgrade gig was the first of what was intended to be a 12 date tour. Winehouse recently completed a rehab assessment at the Priory Clinic in London but was allowed to continue treatment as an outpatient in order to play this string of concerts. The singer had checked into the clinic at the behest of her father, who wanted her to sober up before going out on the road.

Choose Rolling Stone's Cover: The Sheepdogs vs. Lelia Broussard. Vote Now!

Footage from Winehouse's concert at the Tuborg festival in Belgrade has turned up online, including a particularly dire performance of her song "Just Friends" in which she staggers about and appears to barely know the words despite having sung it many times over in the past. You can watch that clip, as well as a similarly awkward rendition of "Valerie," below.



To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »