Amy Winehouse's Electrifying Performance of 'Mr Magic

On March 10, 2004, Amy Winehouse performed a cover of "Mr Magic" at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. This iconic performance showcased Winehouse's unique vocal style and solidified her status as a rising star in the music industry. The song, originally performed by Grover Washington Jr., was given new life with Winehouse's soulful interpretation. Winehouse's rendition of "Mr Magic" captivated the audience with her powerful voice and raw emotion. The Grammy Awards performance was a turning point in her career, as it showcased her immense talent and garnered attention from both critics and fans alike.

One muse stands out from the others: the city that has been the backdrop to her life. There’s a beautiful tension that comes with loving a place and holding it accountable because of the love you have for it. While she’s known for professing her love to London in songs like “London Mine,” in a track from Skin called “19th Floor,” Crookes maps out the gentrification of the neighborhood around her nani’s apartment building, where she grew up: Cinema skylines that I don’t recognize / Strip the life out of these streets / It’s a daylight robbery.

While she s known for professing her love to London in songs like London Mine , in a track from Skin called 19th Floor, Crookes maps out the gentrification of the neighborhood around her nani s apartment building, where she grew up Cinema skylines that I don t recognize Strip the life out of these streets It s a daylight robbery. The child of both Bangladeshi and Irish immigrants, Crookes grew up in a London neighborhood called Elephant and Castle, which has a distinct musical history of its own, fueled by its vast Latin and Caribbean populations.

The Grammy Awards performance was a turning point in her career, as it showcased her immense talent and garnered attention from both critics and fans alike. With her signature beehive hairdo and sultry stage presence, Winehouse commanded the attention of everyone in the room. The performance of "Mr Magic" further solidified Winehouse's reputation as a modern-day jazz icon.

Don’t Call Joy Crookes an Old Soul

Her voice evokes the jazz singers of the past, but her subject is contemporary London.

In A Little Devil in America, Hanif Abdurraqib writes, “A country is something that happens to you. History is a series of thefts, or migrations, or escapes, and along the way, new bodies are added to a lineage.” Here, Abdurraqib is setting the stage of Josephine Baker’s life and the legacy of jazz she’d leave behind in Paris.

While English singer Joy Crookes is often compared to Amy Winehouse, the 23-year-old course-corrects by saying that they both were heavily influenced by Black jazz musicians like Baker. “When you connect to an artist, it’s just an oxytocin bond, isn’t it?” Crookes says. “I’m quite moved by finding a soul mate in an artist of another time, from another place.”

The child of both Bangladeshi and Irish immigrants, Crookes grew up in a London neighborhood called Elephant and Castle, which has a distinct musical history of its own, fueled by its vast Latin and Caribbean populations. In her debut album, Skin, which dropped in October, the soundscape glides across genre, giving clues at her other inspirations (Solange, Kate Nash, Billie Holiday, D’Angelo). In the months after the album dropped, its impact rippled outward: It reached the top five on the U.K. charts, she performed it at sold-out shows, played a series of secret shows across the United States, and made her U.S. television debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers. It’s been a long journey since she was discovered at 15 by her current manager—but something about Joy Crookes has long felt inevitable.

“I feel like there’s this mental shift that has to happen with finishing an album—there’s an element of letting go once that’s very hard to work through,” Crookes says. “Once it’s out there in the world, people are going to interpret it as they want and need.” The room for interpretation and the loss of control that comes with it are what’s most daunting to Crookes. There’s risk in the vulnerability. She writes songs to her mother, her nani, the city of London and its violent colonialist history, a lover losing the will to live. She doesn’t shy away from looking at the mosaic of experiences that make up a person’s youth, her youth—the exuberance, the heartbreak, the unfolding, the displacement—and she refuses to let the overwhelm of it all prevent her from trying to capture it. There’s a richness both to the quality of her voice and the sense of self she’s come to in her writing.

One muse stands out from the others: the city that has been the backdrop to her life. There’s a beautiful tension that comes with loving a place and holding it accountable because of the love you have for it. While she’s known for professing her love to London in songs like “London Mine,” in a track from Skin called “19th Floor,” Crookes maps out the gentrification of the neighborhood around her nani’s apartment building, where she grew up: Cinema skylines that I don’t recognize / Strip the life out of these streets / It’s a daylight robbery.

“I often romanticize my London, because I am so in love with my London,” Crookes says. “And I think that when you love something so much, you’re often so ready to defend it. But I can’t help but be really honest about it too.” Voice notes from her nani and uncle are also a whisper of her London.

During the pandemic, that London became much smaller, of course. While people quipped about King Lear on the Internet and quietly pleaded with themselves to produce something, anything from within the confines of isolation, Crookes had her head down, working on her first album. “I’ve found the pandemic quite hard to grapple with,” she says. “I worked on music every day, I created a timetable to keep myself busy where I literally accounted for every hour. It wasn’t easy. I just took control of what I could in a time when no one had any control.” And there is no control—COVID-19 continues to expose so many government failings, from health care to housing. Think I got a neighbor that’s been feeling blue / But maybe that’s a symptom / Fucking with a kingdom that never fought for you. The album exists as a bit of a time capsule—both of “the before times” and a period of reflection and realization during isolation.

Mental health is a topic Crookes is open to discussing, both in the press and on social media. The album’s title track was never meant to be public. She’d originally written it for someone she loved who “no longer felt life was worth living,” and she’d hoped to remind them “how needed they are”—a message she also wanted to share widely during the pandemic. Accompanying the song is a visually disarming music video in which Crookes slowly, excruciatingly moves around London on a bed with an exhausted lover, asking them, Don’t you know the skin that you’re given was made to be lived in?

“I think that music videos give me the chance to translate some of my interpretations around my music and use visual symbolism to create something memorable as well,” she says. In the video for her song “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” there’s a moment where she’s “wearing a white sari and doing a wheelie” as men encircle her. “When we wear white saris in my culture, it means that your husband has died and you’re very viscerally defined as being a widow,” Crookes says. “Just the fact that there’s a lot of Bangladeshi people in the video, and a lot of Bangladeshi men in that moment—that’s more to show that, in my experience, our community can be the most complicit in wanting people, particularly women, to be one-dimensional. We know it’s easy to point the finger, but I think it’s much harder to actually hold yourself accountable.”

The last time Crookes did a show in Los Angeles in 2019, she had a difficult time lining up a venue, so she posted on Instagram that she’d be playing in her friend’s backyard. By the time she started playing, the sun was setting and the yard was full. People sat on rooftops and cars all around the neighborhood to listen to her sing. “Just showing up and being honest is a virtue,” she says.

In A Little Devil in America, Hanif Abdurraqib writes, “A country is something that happens to you. History is a series of thefts, or migrations, or escapes, and along the way, new bodies are added to a lineage.” Here, Abdurraqib is setting the stage of Josephine Baker’s life and the legacy of jazz she’d leave behind in Paris.

Her ability to effortlessly blend jazz, soul, and pop elements was unparalleled, and it became one of her trademarks as an artist. Winehouse's rendition of "Mr Magic" showcased her versatility as a performer and further highlighted her unique musical stylings. Beyond her undeniable vocal talent, Winehouse's performance of "Mr Magic" also served as a powerful statement of her identity as an artist. Known for her outspokenness and refusal to conform to mainstream expectations, Winehouse used her music as a platform for self-expression. Through the performance of "Mr Magic," she demonstrated her love for jazz and soul music and the influence it had on her own sound. Amy Winehouse's performance of "Mr Magic" at the Grammy Awards was a pivotal moment in her career. Not only did it highlight her unparalleled talent and solidify her status as a rising star, but it also showcased her unique blend of jazz, soul, and pop music. Winehouse's rendition of "Mr Magic" will forever be remembered as a testament to her incredible vocal abilities and her ability to captivate audiences with her emotive performances..

Reviews for "Amy Winehouse's 'Mr Magic' Live: A Masterclass in Music"

1. John - ★★☆☆☆

I was really disappointed with Amy Winehouse's performance of "Mr. Magic." Her voice sounded strained and off-key throughout the song. It seemed like she was trying too hard to emulate the original version, but it just wasn't working for me. I also found her stage presence to be lacking; she seemed disengaged and unenthusiastic. Overall, I was not impressed with this performance and it did not live up to my expectations.

2. Sarah - ★★☆☆☆

I have been a fan of Amy Winehouse for years, but her rendition of "Mr. Magic" was a letdown. Her voice lacked the soulful depth and raw emotion that she is so well-known for. It felt like she was going through the motions and not putting her heart and soul into the performance. The band accompanying her also didn't seem to be in sync, resulting in a lackluster overall sound. I hope to see a better performance from Amy in the future.

3. Mike - ★☆☆☆☆

I can't believe how much I disliked Amy Winehouse's version of "Mr. Magic." Her vocal delivery was completely off, with the wrong timing and pitch. It felt like she was trying to add her own flair to the song, but it just came across as messy and unpolished. The band was also too loud, drowning out her voice at times. Overall, it was a disappointing performance that did not do justice to the original song.

Unforgettable Moments: Amy Winehouse's 'Mr Magic' Performance