A SHOCKING video shows the moment that a woman was left feeling ‘humiliated’ and accused of making money from dead singer whilst busking at Christmas market.
Amber Mason was performing her rendition of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’ at the Christmas market in York, North Yorkshire over the weekend.
She decided to set up her busking area in-front of a large Christmas tree and food stall whilst wrapped up in multiple layers of coats, fingerless gloves and a scarf.
An anonymous man takes issue with the fact Amber has sung one of the late Amy Winehouse’s singles and begins berating her before members of the public stand up for her.
The clip which was uploaded to social media on Sunday shows the singer finishing up her performance singing “Oh, why don’t you come on over, Valerie?” before a few claps could be heard from passers by to which she politely responds “Thank you.”
Whilst most of the seasonal shoppers appear to have enjoyed the performance, a man off-camera can be heard asking questions about the song.
He shouts: “Wasn’t it that, you know like ‘I’m in black’ type of thing?”
A confused Amber replies saying: “Pardon?”
The man seems unable to name the original artist, continuing: “Wasn’t it that woman singing about, was on heroin kind of thing that died, didn’t she die?”
Several other visitors of the Christmas market then hear what is happening as several of them can be heard telling the man: “Amy Winehouse.”
Amber says: “Yeah, Amy Winehouse, yes it was.”
The man then immediately barks back saying: “And how long has she been passed away?”
Amber, taken aback from this stands puzzled and thinking for a few seconds before responding: “14 years maybe?”
The conversation then takes a turn as the man suddenly accuses Amber of making money off the much-loved Back to Black singer.
The man says: “14 years yeah, so you’ve been making money off of her for like ten years have you?”
Several other people can then be heard defending Amber while the man carries on accusing her of ripping the deceased singer off, he can be hard shouting: “A woman has died.”
The man then attacks Amber directly and states: “How about being original so that you don’t die, because when you die all your supporting is making money of women who’ll sing your songs when you’ll die.”
A man interrupts the mysterious monologue from the man, saying: “Why don’t you jog off you t**t.”
Amber seems to recognise the man who has taken issue with her choice of music, saying: “Aren’t you the same man that chucked rubbish into my case the other day?”
The man shouts back reminding Amber that he enjoys her music and has tipped, he says: “Yeah and five pounds, and five pounds.”
The other man in the background again tells the man to “Jog off” before another woman who walks past applauds and shouts: “Keep singing girl, go on, keep going.”
Amber replies: “Thank you”, however the man who defended Amber can then be heard saying to the pest “What do you want?” whilst the on-screen caption reads: ‘Just wanted to cry at this point.’
The strange man continues his one-man protest against Amber and tells her to keep going as the young songbird appears visibly upset.
The man says: “Keep going a*****e.”
Members of the public continue to encourage Amber to shrug off the comments and entertain the crowd with her voice which she decides to do.
The final on-screen text reads: “I was so annoyed at myself that I didn’t stand up for myself but with the crowd of people I panicked and didn’t want to make more of a scene.”
The video was uploaded to social media over the weekend with the caption: “This is a hard one to watch back for me as I can’t believe i just froze and got so speechless but its a massive learning curve.”
The post was liked by more than 21,000 users and has received over 700 comments.
One user wrote: “What a massive f***ing weirdo.”
Another commented: “Valerie wasn’t an Amy Winehouse original song anyhow, it was written by the Zutons. You have to keep signing to keep the music alive. x”
A third replied: “What a horrible man.”
Another replied: “Better never catch him singing happy birthday on someone’s birthday cos that song writer is LONG GONE.”
A fifth added: “Amy Winehouse would be proud of you for keeping her music alive! ignore him and keep doing what you love.”
Amy Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning on 23 July 2011, aged just 27 and widely regarded as one of the United Kingdom’s finest singers.
