Forty-five minutes after Amy Winehouse is due on stage, there is still no sign of the singer, which offers an opportunity to ponder the latest headlines in a year of arrests, public scraps and drug busts. Winehouse was reportedly booed off stage in Birmingham, and her tour manager was reported to have quit due to the presence of heroin on the tour bus. Only hours before the gig, she was criticised by the United Nations' top drug enforcement official and advised to quit touring by Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis. Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber has joined a small but defiant chorus of defence, comparing Winehouse's real-life dramas to jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald's. What this means for Newcastle is that when the curtain finally rises, anything could happen.
Thankfully, the Winehouse that sashays on in a tiny cream dress is not the one of tabloid infamy, but the awesome voice behind this year's biggest selling album, Back to Black. Amazingly, as she reels off the album's songs, that voice has never sounded better, a roar of jazz and blues. A pattern ensues: every song is followed by a rapturous ovation. After much discussion of her mental state, the smiling singer is sharp enough to perform perfect choreographed dance moves and signal for more vocals in the sound mix. She delivers Back to Black's "I died 100 times", swoons and raises herself again; a brilliantly poignant move that seems spontaneous. Crucially, she seems to be reconnecting with the simple highs of performing before an audience who love her.
In fact, the performance is so eerily fantastic that you end up looking for telltale flaws. One song has to be restarted; she is prompted into the segue into Bad Thing; and exposing her bra while taking off a guitar prompts an ongoing obsession with covering her cleavage. But otherwise, this is an absorbing example of a singer living every lyric. Her recent troubles are addressed in Wake Up Alone's dedication to currently incarcerated husband Blake Fielder-Civil. But, sipping only once, she never loses focus on the show, whether apologising "from the depth of my heart" for lateness, delivering a note-perfect Rehab or handing a tiny present to a girl with a "fantastic" beehive. Given the torrent of negative interest, it is a miracle the 24-year-old pulls it off, but this is a powerful showing of grace under fire worthy of the outstanding female singer of her generation.
· At Empress Ballroom, Blackpool (01253 627786), tonight. Then touring.
