BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Amy Winehouse was booed and jeered during a concert in Serbia’s capital as she stumbled onto the stage, mumbled through her songs and wandered off.
Serbian media described the concert late Saturday kicking off her European tour before about 20,000 fans as a “scandal” and a “disaster.” The Blic daily said the concert was “the worst in the history of Belgrade.”
Winehouse, who has publicly struggled with drugs and alcohol, was almost an hour late, before stumbling to the stage and appearing unable to remember the lyrics to her songs. She dropped the microphone and occasionally disappeared, with her band playing instead.
The crowd at Belgrade’s fortress could hardly tell which song Winehouse was singing and responded angrily. Many walked out in disappointment.
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“It was horrible,” said Ivana Bilic, a fan. “She should have canceled the whole thing, rather than appear at all like this.”
The Daily Blic posted a clip from the concert on its website, commenting, “Listen if you dare.”
Tickets cost about euro40 ($57) — very expensive in the country where average salaries are about euro300 ($428) a month.
Winehouse recently spent a week at a rehab program in London. Her breakthrough album “Back to Black” from 2006 won five Grammy Awards, but her music in recent years has been overshadowed by drug use and run-ins with the law.
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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.