Fans boo Amy Winehouse’s performance in Dubai

Known for her powerful contralto vocals, the British singer Amy Winehouse left a throng of 10,000 fans disappointed after poor performance in one of her concerts in Dubai on Friday.

Winehouse not only mumbled through four or five sings, twirled her hair in cheekiness, but the songstress showed faux pas gestures such as picking her nails, nose and scratching her arms in disdain, all in front of her dozens of thousands of fans who paid at least $100 each for their tickets.

Winehouse left intermittently the stage to leave the burden on the backup singers to take over and entertain the crowd for the next few songs. Once back on stage, the nose and arms scratching and hair twisting continued and exacerbated with her avoiding eye contacts with the crowd and forgetting the lyrics to many of her major hits.

“I think she’s gone from bad to worse,” Sybil Hyde, one of the attendees who were leaving the venue halfway through, told Gulf News. “She should come back in a year and perform for free, come back clean, and everyone who has tickets for tonight should be able to come.”

Like many others at the gig, Hyde also noticed that the cameraman for the big screen avoided Amy and concentrated on the backstage singers and bandmates

“I didn’t pay Dh300 to see that guy’s feet,” she said, gesturing to the screen which was focused on the band’s shoes.

She should come back in a year and perform for free, come back clean, and everyone who has tickets for tonight should be able to come

Sybil Hyde

A refund campaign

A campaign by ticket holders to get refunds from organizer Done Events is gaining steam, but the company’s COO Thomas Ovesen has told local media that there was no guarantee on the quality of Winehouse’s performance, Arabian Business reported him saying.

Ovesen said a ticket refund was not possible. “If you go and watch a movie and don’t like it, would you ask for a refund? Of course not. When you pay money, you have every right to review it and dislike it if you want.”

Winehouse's manager released a statement blaming “technical issues” particularly with the in-ear system for the singer’s poor performance, a claim which the local production team strongly disputes.

“Whenever Amy Winehouse performs the news media re-writes her career and speculation is rife about what her life is like at the moment. If any of her fans were disappointed I am sure she will be the one the most disappointed,” Ovesen added.

“All we can do is set up the production and accommodate the fans and then hope she delivers a show the fans will like — if you pay to attend you have a right to review and even dislike her show and that is the nature of live entertainment."

Winehouse had a history of substance abuse and mental health issues. In 2005 she went through a period of drinking, heavy drug use, violent mood swings and weight loss.