Amy Winehouse has canceled her 12-stop European tour after a cringe-worthy opening show on Saturday at Belgrade, Serbia's Forest Fest.

Winehouse’s disastrous performance came soon after she had checked out of the Priory Clinic’s alcohol rehab program, which she was enrolled in for only about a week. The British singer, 27, was apparently “raring to go” with her live shows.

She walked on stage on Saturday an hour late, drunk and unsteady. She constantly forgot the lyrics to her own songs, dropped the mic, left the stage on numerous occasions during the 90 minute “performance,” leaving her band to keep on playing, and even stopped her performance to hug it out with her bandmates. Videos posted on YouTube show a glassy-eyed and nervous Winehouse staggering around, stopping several times mid-verse and looking over to her bandmates for help. At one point, she calls a backup singer to fill in for her, as catcalls interrupted her erratic vocals. The crowd at Kalemegdan Park could hardly tell which song Winehouse was singing, and many walked out.

Fans were obviously not impressed, not the least because they didn’t get their money’s worth. At $57 a ticket, the price was pretty steep, considering that the average monthly salary in Serbia is about $443. To make matters worse, Winehouse addressed the crowd of 20,000 Serbians with a “Hello, Athens!”

The Serbian press described the concert as a “scandal” and “disaster.” The daily Blic called it “the worst [concert] in the history of Belgrade.”

Alcohol had been banned from the tour, but that didn’t seem to stop Winehouse, although her representative Tracey Miller did not directly confirm that the Rehab singer, who has been plagued by substance abuse issues for much of her career, had fallen off the wagon. However, by Sunday, Winehouse had canceled her appearances in Turkey and Greece.

“Despite feeling sure that she wanted to fulfill these commitments, she has agreed with management that she cannot perform to the best of her ability and will return home,” the official statement read. “She would like to apologize to fans expecting to see her at the shows but feels that this is the right thing to do.” The statement also said fans would be told “as soon as possible” whether the rest of her European program would be fulfilled. Her next show now is not scheduled until July 8 in Bilbao, Spain. The final concert is to be on August 15 in Bucharest, Romania.

The singer has reportedly been working on the follow-up to her Grammy-winning 2006 album, Back to Black, but no release date has been announced for the disc. Back to Black won five Grammy awards, but her music has been overshadowed by her lifestyle and run-ins with the law.

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3 Comments

  • Patrick King
    Patrick King on

    whew boy…

  • Victoria
    Victoria on

    Just a few days ago, I was wondering what happened to Amy Winehouse. Now I know.

  • Sydney Ramsden
    Sydney Ramsden on

    This is a sad situation to see, especially because Amy Winehouse is truly talented and has such a unique style. I hope she can move past her personal drama and put out more music, because I, as well as many other fans, would love to hear more from her in the future.

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