Amy Winehouse cancels European shows after ‘scandalous’ gig
Singer Amy Winehouse cancels two dates on her European tour after she was booed for appearing too drunk to perform at a concert in Serbia.
The concert in Belgrade was the first of 12 scheduled performances across Europe. Concert goers said she stumbled on stage and mumbled through her songs.
A spokesman for Miss Winehouse said she is returning home.
Her spokesman said: “Despite feeling sure that she wanted to fulfil these commitments, she has agreed with management that she cannot perform to the best of her ability and will return home.
“She would like to apologise to fans expecting to see her at the shows but feels that this is the right thing to do.”
He would not comment on whether she was unwell.
The singer has struggled with addiction for some time and apologised for cancelling her sets at the Kucuk Ciftlik Park festival in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Ejekt festival in Athens, Greece.
Doubt was also cast on whether she would give other European performances for which she is booked next month.
The singer was due to appear at Spain’s BBK Live festival in Bilbao, Switzerland’s Piazza Grande in Locarno, Italy’s Lucca festival, Switzerland’s Paleo Festival in Nyon, Nova Jazz and Blues Night in Wiesen, Austria and Poland’s Bydgoszcz Artpop Festival in July.
But her spokesman said these dates were now “under discussion”.
Serbian media described her performance at Belgrade’s Fortress as a “scandal” and a “disaster”.
They reported that the Grammy Award-winning chart star appeared an hour late, stumbled to the stage and mumbled through her songs before 20,000 fans.
She occasionally disappeared, leaving her band playing instead, and sparked an angry response from the crowd.
Winehouse, whose music has long been overshadowed by drug use and run-ins with the law, recently spent a week in rehab at the Priory clinic.
Her latest visit to the south-west London hospital was thought to have been at the suggestion of her father, Mitch, over concerns she was drinking too much prior to her live shows.
She was due to continue to be seen as an outpatient after she checked out. The singer said last October she had been drug-free for three years.