What Is It About Men by Amy Winehouse Song Info
“What is It About Men” is a personal, gut-spilling song about Amy’s feelings towards her own father. She feels she’s bound to end up becoming a mistress to a married man in the future, the same way her father had a mistress while growing up. She feels it’s her “fate” to repeat the cycle and do this herself to another man’s family because of her father. During her performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2004, while addressing the audience, she confirmed that the song was indeed about her father. However, she had admitted to The Guardian a year earlier in October 2003 that the song was one she felt was too personal to perform, adding: "Writing it made me realise a lot about myself and why Dad cheated. I’ve grown to realise he’s not a big bastard, just a man with a dick." When asked about his influence on the song by The Guardian in February 2004, Winehouse’s father Mitch said: "I think it’s only the first part that’s specifically about me. The rest of it is more generally about what rats men are. But the song’s given me pause for thought, because the divorce obviously coloured her view of men."
