WINEHOUSE IS TALENTED - BUT NO ROLE MODEL

From her towering beehive hairdo and her ever-growing number of
tattoos to the blood oozing from between her toes, British singer Amy
Winehouse is not a public figure most parents want their teenagers to
admire ... or even know about.

Yet there was no getting away from Winehouse on Sunday. And talk about
glorifying if not her, at least her outsize talent. There she was, at
age 24, winning one Grammy award after another - four in total - for
her heartbreaking, harrowing songs about rehab and outrageous behaviour.

Via satellite from London, she sang two of her biggest hits, Rehab and
You Know I'm No Good, the lyrics seemingly right out of her own wild
life. How wild? She has been photographed with what is carefully
described as suspicious white powder around her nostrils, as well as
with blood between her toes, significant because heroin addicts
sometimes shoot up there. Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, is in
jail, accused of trying to dissuade a man he allegedly assaulted from
testifying.

When she sings "They tried to make me go to rehab but I said, 'No, no,
no,' " you know it's nothing but the truth. Her mother, her father,
her friends, her band, even Mick Jagger have tried to help Winehouse
understand that she should look after herself.

This year has been great professionally for Winehouse, with the Grammy
awards possibly presaging a real breakthrough into the U.S. and from
there, the world market. But as far as her health is concerned, it's a
different story. She recently did complete one stint in rehab, a
single bright light in an otherwise dark picture. She is new best
friends with Britain's other famous drug addict, Babyshambles singer
Pete Doherty.

Young people, especially girls, love her. Not that she cares: "I'm not
in this to be a f---ing role model," she said in one interview.

Is this a singer the music industry should celebrate? Does talent
alone trump all other considerations?

The world would be a poorer place if only straitlaced, water-sipping
artistes were allowed to be stars. Remember Jimi Hendrix and Janis
Joplin, to name just two. Everyone who loves their music regrets their
premature deaths.

Maybe it's easier to ask whether admiration for this huge talent in
such a fragile package necessarily means parents should worry that
their own daughters will do anything more daring than wear too much
eyeliner?

We trust that most young people know a mess of a personal life when
they see one, with or without talent. There have been too many photos
of her lurching down the street at 6 a.m., her makeup running, her
nose running, her famous hairdo askew, for her to be anyone's model.

A British writer, Jemima Owen, put her finger on it in the Observer
last month, saying Winehouse's appeal is that teenagers take comfort
from the fact that "no matter how much you screw up, there will still
be people who want you to shine." That's a great message for anyone,
at any age.