Maybe it was soaking up the St Lucian sun and inhaling something fresher and more pure than that white stuff, that knocked a drug abusing Whitney Houston to her senses after she vacationed here with then hubby Bobby Brown in 1999/2000.

Soon afterwards, Whitney was knocking on divorce court doors. With her divorce finalized the singer, who is due for a Britney-style comeback this year, told the international press that she is indeed in need of a vacation. And what better place than St Lucia? The question now is, can Amy Winehouse, who often has the labels “troubled” and “substance abuse”  before her name in the press, follow Whitney’s lead and emerge clean after her latest vacation at Le Sport?

In the summer of 2007, British born Winehouse, who rose to popularity with her album “Back to Black” and the single “Rehab” vacationed here with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil at the world renowned Jade Mountain in Soufriere. Her record label reportedly forked out more than US$1,400 per night for her suite, as part of the vacation package which was seen as a way of getting her to somehow segue into rehab having refused to enter a drug center prior. Just days before the 2007 St Lucia trip shocking pictures emerged of the pair in the British papers and on the internet, looking all bloodied and bruised after a nasty drug-fuelled street brawl.

For a few weeks after the St Lucia trip all seemed well with Winehouse, until an October 2007 arrest in Norway, along with Civil, for the use and possession of marijuana. However in January of 2008 her record label, Universal Music Group, issued a statement that the singer/songwriter had entered a rehab facility, in preparation for the 2008 Grammy awards which she eventually missed since she could not secure a US visa on time. That year she won five Grammy awards. Singer Natalie Cole, a former cocaine addict herself, had this to say to People Magazine; “I don’t think she should have won. I think it sends a bad message to our young people who are trying to get into this business, the ones who are trying to do it right and really trying to keep themselves together.”

A few months later the Winehouse/Civil union was said to be on the rocks with the singer wanting out.  And by November the pair was talking divorce. Civil told the British press that he had to give her a chance to save her own life and that he does it in the name of love. In his interview with the News of the World tabloid the 25-year-old admitted that Amy started taking crack and heroin from his hands. That same month Civil was caught between jail and rehab whilst Amy planned her second Caribbean getaway.

Two days before Christmas, the 25-year-old Amy Winehouse flew to St Lucia to a resort in the North, this time without Civil. Instead, The 25-year-old “dipped into her savings to treat five regulars from her local in Camden, North London, to a first class all-expenses-paid trip to the Caribbean island,” according to British newspaper the Daily Mirror. Amy Winehouse has been splashing the cash while on holiday in the Caribbean— by spending almost $60,000 to fly out five more pals and has even extended her stay by a week, saying that she has fallen in love with St Lucia.

Pictures of Amy Winehouse romping nude on her hotel room balcony and on the beach in St Lucia have been splashed all over the internet and in the British papers and news sources around the world, affording St Lucia more press coverage than the professed tourism guru James Hepple could come up with. Part of her holiday extension, sources told the STAR, is that Winehouse is not only in love with St Lucia but has been talking seriously about moving here and recording her next album in a studio here. She has also been spotted frolicking with a couple of “locals” far too close for comfort, even though her “very close” boy-toy Blake Wood was flown to St Lucia as well.

On Sunday January 4th after another one of her many topless romps along the beach, Winehouse was later seen in the arms of an unidentified man. This comes after frolicking with guy pal Blake Wood and flirting with yet another beachgoer. She has also reportedly become “extremely close” to a male worker at the resort. “He seems to be really easy going and funny, which Amy loves,” a source told The Sun about her mystery man, who played Santa at the hotel.

“She seems smitten. She slopes off with him whenever she can and they have been inseparable since meeting,” the source shared further to the publication. “People have asked him what is going on but he seems shy. All he says is that Amy is lovely and the two get on very well,” the source continued saying. “But everyone thinks there is a lot more to the relationship and have been watching them closely.” The man is question is known simply as Matt.

Another “big” online story has linked Amy Winehouse with St Lucian performer Shayne Ross. The first red flag about that story was that the R&B singer whose song “Naked” may have inspired Winehouse, was listed as “a local calypso singer.”  According to the story “the Back to Black star, who is looking healthier than ever, publicly kissed Caribbean musician Shayne Ross at a beach barbecue just before Christmas, and since then he has become one of her favorite island pals.”

The STAR contacted Ross for a comment, who laughed when he heard my voice assuming what the call was about.  “Man I have been getting calls all day about this, persons are hitting me up on my MySpace page like crazy,” Ross told us. “But you know what, it is simply not true, I never even met her,” he added. Ross chuckled then said, “what you can write about is that I am releasing a new single in time for Valentine’s Day called “In Love with You” and maybe I can perform it for Winehouse and her new love whoever that might be.”

Whether or not Shayne Ross was mistaken for Shane Michel who featured in the STAR last week with Winehouse, we are not sure. What we do know is that whilst Winehouse seems content here in St Lucia all of her troubles are not behind her. She still has to appear in court in Norway next Monday (January 12), during which time she’s been slated for an appeal of drug charges. However the singer is reportedly adamant that 2009 will see her moving to St Lucia and making a comeback.

This leaves us to think that maybe this may help speed up the establishment of our psychiatric ward and drug rehabilitation center. Then again St Lucia might be what Amy Winehouse needs, to put her on the right track like other substance abusing music icons—including Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles . . . the list goes on.