Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

If Not Illegal Drugs, Then What Killed Amy Winehouse?

While some are still trying to determine whether Amy Winehouse was a nice Jewish girl or not, others are continuing to engage in ongoing speculation as to the cause of the late singer’s death in July.

Rather than putting minds at ease, Winehouse’s family’s announcement yesterday that tests showed that there were no illegal substances found in her body is fueling even further debate about why she died. And we can expect every expert — not to mention pseudo-expert — to be putting forth his or her forensic theory until the formal cause of death is released to the public in October.

ABC’s interviews of a toxicology professor and a forensic pathologist in relation to the Winehouse family’s announcement just left readers and viewers more confused than they were before. What, according to these authorities, caused the singer’s death? It could have been legal drugs or substances, including alcohol (after all, didn’t the family mention only that illegal substances were not found in her dead body?). It could have been abrupt alcohol or drug withdrawal. It could have been cardiovascular diseased caused by years of wild living. It could have been caused by extreme weight swings leading to a severe metabolic imbalance.

In other words, it could have been any, all or none of these things.

How about we just let the newest member of the Forever 27 Club—nice Jewish girl, or not — rest in peace. At least until October.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.