Three faces of musical motherhood in death: Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston and Donna Summer

This chapter considers the representation of female musicianship in recent UKpress obituaries, with a focus on the theme of motherhood. The research data setconsidered was taken over a nine month period, between July 2011 and February2012. Over this time the popular music industry and fans across the worldmourned the deaths of three of its best-selling female artists: Amy Winehouse(1983–2011), Whitney Houston (1963–2012) and Donna Summer (1948–2012).The UK press coverage of their deaths intriguingly indicates that motherhood wasused as a journalistic hook to compare them, regardless of whether the artists wereactually parents, as in the case of Houston and Summer, or not (Winehouse). Thischapter will unpack the meanings of motherhood (Eid, 2002), that most genderedof themes, and its usage, value and cultural politics.