Amy Winehouse (1983 - 2011) was an English singer and songwriter known for a deep contralto voice and for lyrics of unusual candour. [1] Her second album, Back to Black, drew on 1960s soul and girl-group arrangements and became one of the best-selling British albums of the century, winning five Grammy Awards in 2008. [2] She died in London at the age of twenty-seven.
Early life
Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 in Southgate, north London, to a Jewish family; her father was a taxi driver and her mother a pharmacist. [1] Jazz was played constantly at home, and she absorbed the singing of Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and Tony Bennett alongside contemporary hip hop and soul.
She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School and later the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, and was performing and writing songs in her teens. A demo passed to a management company led to a recording contract before she turned twenty. [3]
Frank and early recognition
Frank, released in 2003 and produced largely with Salaam Remi, combined jazz phrasing with conversational, often caustic lyrics. [1] It was well reviewed, went platinum in the United Kingdom and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, and the single Stronger Than Me won an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting.
Back to Black
For her second album Winehouse worked with Remi and with Mark Ronson, who assembled a band of New York soul musicians to back her. Back to Black, released in October 2006, used the instrumentation and studio sound of 1960s Motown and Stax records behind lyrics about infidelity, drinking and refusal of treatment. [2]
The album topped the British chart and sold in the millions internationally. At the 50th Grammy Awards in February 2008 she won five awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for Rehab, Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album, appearing by satellite link from London. [1] She had already taken the BRIT Award for Best British Female Solo Artist in 2007, and won further Ivor Novello Awards for her songwriting.
Later years and death
Winehouse's dependence on alcohol and drugs, and the intense tabloid and paparazzi attention it attracted, disrupted her work from 2007 onward. Recording sessions and tours were cancelled, and a European tour attempted in June 2011 was abandoned after its opening date. [1]
She died at her home in Camden, north London, on 23 July 2011. An inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, attributing it to alcohol toxicity after a period of abstinence. [2] She was twenty-seven, an age that led to frequent comparison with other musicians who died at the same age.
Legacy
A posthumous collection of demos and alternative takes, Lioness: Hidden Treasures, appeared at the end of 2011. [1] Her family established the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which funds work with young people affected by addiction and disadvantage. [3]
Asif Kapadia's documentary Amy, released in 2015 and assembled largely from archive footage, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and prompted renewed debate about the media treatment of performers in difficulty. [2] Her recorded output remains small but continues to influence singers working in soul and pop.
