Amy Winehouse

• Born: September 14, 1983
• Place of Birth: Enfield, United Kingdom
• Died: July 23, 2011
• Place of Death: Camden Town, London, United Kingdom

Amy Winehouse was a British pop singer and songwriter who worked in a variety of musical genres, including punk, jazz, soul and rhythm and blues (R&B). Her debut album was released in 2004, and a popular second album, Back to Black, earned her a total of five Grammy Awards—including Best Song for her hit "Rehab." Winehouse was known for her powerful, distinctive voice and her sixties-style beehive hairdo. She was also notorious for a streak of wild and unpredictable behavior and problematic drug addiction. Winehouse died on July 23, 2011.

Background

Amy Jade Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983, in Southgate, England, a residential suburb in north London. Winehouse's father, Mitch, was a taxi driver, and her mother, Janis, was a pharmacist. By the time Winehouse was ten years old, her parents had divorced. After their split, she moved with her mother to the neighborhood of East Finchley.

Winehouse remained close to her paternal grandmother, Cynthia—a one-time jazz singer. Music was in Winehouse's blood on her mother's side, too. A number of her maternal uncles were jazz musicians of one kind or another. As a child, Winehouse displayed a willful, dramatic personality, and it was her grandmother Cynthia who suggested that she take advantage of her natural inclination to perform by taking stage classes on the weekends and attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School.

Early Performing Career

Although she was a fairly good dancer, Winehouse's talent for singing did not appear immediately. Over the course of her time at Sylvia Young, however, she grew into an accomplished jazz singer with a smooth, smoky voice. Yet, Winehouse had not grown out of her rebellious streak. She was expelled from Sylvia Young for not showing sufficient dedication to her studies and for piercing her nose, something that was against the rules. Winehouse next attended a private girls' school, and then joined the BRIT School for Performing Arts, where she continued to progress as a singer and developed a reputation as a capable actor as well.

By 1999, when Winehouse was sixteen, she had already gotten her first tattoo—an image of a jazz singer on her arm, chosen in tribute to Cynthia. It would later be followed by more than ten others, which helped to reinforce the singer's rebellious image. Winehouse had also become a confident and impressive vocalist whose abilities allowed her to join England's National Youth Jazz Orchestra and sing in a number of other jazz bands.

First Recording Contract

Winehouse had been writing, singing, and recording tapes of her own original songs for many years prior to her success as a recording artist. In her teens, her career received a jump start when her then-boyfriend, Tyler James, shared some of her recordings with Nick Godwyn. Godwyn was James's manager at 19 Entertainment, the prominent British music and television company founded by internationally renowned artist manager Simon Fuller. (Among creating and managing other artists such as the Spice Girls, Fuller founded the "Idol" television series that includes Pop Idol in England and American Idol in the United States.)

Godwyn admired not only Winehouse's strong vocals and songwriting talent, but also her ability to pay homage to classic jazz artists, while also producing an innovative hip-hop sound that he thought was unique. In 2002, with the help of 19 Entertainment, Winehouse signed her first recording contract with Island Records and EMI Publishing. She then moved out of her mother's house into an apartment in the bohemian neighborhood of Camden, London.

Frank

Winehouse released her first album in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2003, when she was only twenty years old. Titled Frank, it was named after legendary American singer and actor Frank Sinatra. The album, written by Winehouse herself, was produced by Salaam Remi, a US-based hip-hop and R&B producer who had also produced albums with artists such as the Fugees and Nas. The songs on Frank were alternately sultry and scathing, and they earned Winehouse a slew of positive reviews from music critics in Britain. Frank also received a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize in 2004, and one of the tracks on the album, "Stronger Than Me," won Winehouse an Ivor Novello songwriting award for best contemporary song.

In 2005, Winehouse met Blake Fielder-Civil and the two embarked on a rocky romance. Fielder-Civil was arrested after assaulting a fellow patron in a bar in 2007. He was also a habitual drug user. According to some reports, Fielder-Civil introduced Winehouse to the hard drugs that many believe led to her problematic drug addiction. Despite their troubles, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil were married in May 2007. They divorced in August 2009.

Back to Black

Her tempestuous relationship with Fielder-Civil provided much of the inspiration for most of the songs on Winehouse's second album, Back to Black. Released in 2006, Back to Black chronicled both the events of Winehouse's love life and her addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Her most successful single, "Rehab," turned her adamant refusal to enter an alcohol rehabilitation center into a catchy pop riff.

Back to Black, which drew on the rhythms of Motown and soul music, soon began climbing the charts both in Britain and in the US. Within a few months, the album became a critical and popular crossover success. But Winehouse's newfound fame was due not just to the quality of her music, but also her increasing notoriety. By 2007, she had lost a startling amount of weight and began behaving unpredictably in public.

During this time, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil publicly split and reunited. At one point, the couple were photographed bruised and bloody after a physical altercation with one another. Winehouse also made a drunken appearance on a popular British television show, vomited while onstage at a nightclub show, appeared less-than-sober during several other performances, and simply failed to show up at many scheduled concerts. The singer was also captured on video twice in the act of ingesting a substance alleged to be cocaine. In November 2007, Winehouse even announced the cancellation of her tour, stating that she was taking the time for a complete rest.

For Winehouse, 2008 was a year of both success and disappointment. The singer received five Grammy Awards, tying the record for the most Grammys won by a female artist in one night (Winehouse also became the first British singer to win five Grammys). However, 2008 was also marked by several attempts at drug rehabilitation and a medical diagnosis indicating early signs of emphysema. In addition, her husband, Fielder-Civil, was sentenced to a twenty-seven-month jail sentence in July for assault and perverting justice.

In January 2010, Winehouse was charged with assault and disorderly behavior and given a two-year conditional discharge. Winehouse appeared in concert in Belgrade, Serbia, in June 2011. The singer appeared confused and intoxicated, leading the crowd to begin booing and complaining. Her concert tour was subsequently canceled.

Winehouse's Belgrade appearance was her last performance. She was found dead in her London apartment on July 23, 2011. Following news of her death, the singer's musical accomplishments were remembered worldwide. However, many fans and members of the music media also lamented her tragic and destructive struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. In addition to a bronze statue of Winehouse being placed in Camden in 2014, the following year saw the release of Asif Kapadia's documentary about the singer-songwriter. Simply titled Amy, the documentary ultimately took home the 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature). As her legacy in the music world continued to be acknowledged, in 2019 fans were excited when Salaam Remi included the song "Find My Love," which features previously unreleased vocals from Winehouse, on his newest compilation album, and in early 2020 her name was added to Camden's Music Walk of Fame. While a biopic, Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Marisa Abela as Winehouse, was released to theaters in 2024, it received largely mixed to negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.

Bibliography

Rao, Sonia. "Why the Makers of 'Back to Black' Think We Need an Amy Winehouse Biopic." The Washington Post, 17 May 2024, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/05/17/amy-winehouse-movie-marisa-abela/. Accessed 21 June 2024.

"Revisit: Beyond Black—The Style of Amy Winehouse." Grammy Museum, 1 May 2020, grammymuseum.org/museum-at-home/revisit-beyond-black-the-style-of-amy-winehouse/. Accessed 1 July 2020.

Savage, Mark. "Amy Winehouse Honoured on Camden's Music Walk of Fame." BBC News, 4 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51735818. Accessed 1 July 2020.

Sisario, Ben. "Amy Winehouse, British Soul Singer with a Troubled Life, Dies at 27." The New York Times, 23 July 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/arts/music/amy-winehouse-british-soul-singer-dies-at-27.html. Accessed 1 July 2020.

Wolfe, Elizabeth, and Brandon Griggs. "Fans of Amy Winehouse Are Paying Tribute on the Anniversary of Her Breakthrough Album." CNN Entertainment, 27 Oct. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/10/27/entertainment/amy-winehouse-back-to-black-anniversary-trnd/index.html. Accessed 1 July 2020.