Amy Winehouse’s Label Destroyed Third-Album Demos
It's only natural to wonder what could've been for Amy Winehouse, musically speaking, considering the impact she made on pop music during her too-short stint in the public eye. As it turns out, she did have an entire album's worth of demos mapped out right before she died, in preparation for her third album. But don't bank on ever hearing them -- her label destroyed them in an attempt to protect her legacy.
It sounds like a strange decision at first, not to mention out-of-character for an industry usually willing to capitalize on anything that may guarantee chart success. But according to Billboard, Amy's demos will never resurface, because they no longer exist.
David Joseph, the chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK and an executive producer on the upcoming documentary Amy, talked about his decision to get rid of the demos. He said, "It was a moral thing. Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch. It now can’t happen on anyone else’s.”
It's something of a blow for fans, knowing Amy was in the process of writing a third album that will never come to fruition, even if the album was only in its infancy. But hearing the tracks before they were fully finished may not have felt right, either. It's a common criticism doled out when fans discuss the posthumous Michael Jackson release, Xscape, an album comprised entirely of Jackson's demos that were eventually polished by a group of producers, obviously without his final approval. Considering the perfectionist Jackson was, it isn't hard to believe he would be mortified by the idea.
Whether Amy might have felt similarly is something we'll never know, but it looks like Lioness: Hidden Treasures is the only posthumous release we'll get from her.
Was the decision a noble and respectful one, or were her most passionate fans robbed? Let us know in the comments.
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