Winehouse axes tour to recover

Amy Winehouse is axing all scheduled shows and will be given “as long as it takes” to sort herself out.

Amy Winehouse is axing all scheduled shows and will be given “as long as it takes” to sort herself out.

This follows a disastrous comeback performance in Serbia at the weekend at which she was booed and jeered at the start of her European tour.

She initially pulled out of two festival shows but now all her gigs have been pulled, her spokesman said today.

Winehouse (27) has had a long battle with drink and drugs which has tended to overshadow her music career.

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In the run-up to her live return, she spent a week at the Priory clinic in south west London. Her stay was said to be at the suggestion of her father, Mitch, over concerns that she was drinking too much before her live shows.

Her spokesman said today: “Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances.

“Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen.”

She had been due to appear at Spain’s BBK Live festival in Bilbao, Switzerland’s Piazza Grande in Locarno, Italy’s Lucca festival, Switzerland’s Paleo Festival in Nyon, Nova Jazz and Blues Night in Wiesen, Austria, and Poland’s Bydgoszcz Artpop Festival over the coming weeks.

After the first pair of shows were axed at the weekend, it was announced she was withdrawing from the gigs in Istanbul and Athens because she “cannot perform to the best of her ability”.

Serbian media described Winehouse’s performance at Belgrade’s Fortress before 20,000 fans on Saturday as a “scandal” and a “disaster”.

She was reported to have appeared an hour late, stumbled to the stage and mumbled through her songs and occasionally disappeared.

After her latest Priory spell, she expected to continue to be seen as an outpatient. The singer said last October she had been drug-free for three years.

PA