Obituaries

Amy Winehouse dies

By | Published on Monday 25 July 2011

Amy Winehouse

Troubled singing star Amy Winehouse died at her Camden home this weekend, aged 27.

Raised in North London, Winehouse was a born performer, influenced musically by her cabbie father Mitch’s passion for jazz music and Rat Pack stars like Frank Sinatra. Her talents as a singer were spotted early on, though it was her grandmother that first proposed the then nine year old Amy attend drama school. She subsequently spent four years at the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School before attending the prestigious theatre school set up run by Sylvia Young.

Despite her obvious talents for music and performance, teachers often struggled to keep Winehouse quiet in more conventional classes, though Sylvia Young herself admitted that was mainly because the young Amy found academic work too easy, and soon lost interest as a result. She left the Sylvia Young institution as her GCSEs approached, legend has it after being expelled, though Young says it was Winehouse’s mother that chose to put her daughter in a more traditional school, fearing she may otherwise fail her exams.

A stint at the BRIT School followed, though it was the music the teenage Winehouse was writing on her own accord that stood out. A boyfriend, soul singer Tyler James, shopped her demo tape around labels and management agencies, resulting in a 2002 deal with Simon Fuller’s 19 Management company. She quickly signed a publishing deal with EMI, while label interest started to build from various quarters. In the end Universal’s Island Records scored a deal.

Debut album ‘Frank’, produced mainly by Salaam Remi, was released in 2003 receiving much acclaim and a number of award nods, even though Winehouse herself said she wasn’t entirely happy with the record, and didn’t entirely agree with the choices of her label regarding which songs and mixes to include.

But it was album number two, 2006’s ‘Back To Black’, produced by both Remi and Mark Ronson, that really launched Winehouse as a global signing star, winning acclaim, awards and huge record sales the world over, and breaking the singer in the US. While it was songs and the voice that ensured Winehouse’s success, her distinct and strong-minded character and infectious personality – on stage and in interviews – played its part too.

As Winehouse’s superstar status was confirmed, the spotlight increasingly fell on her private life, which proved controversial. Her excessive drinking and drug-taking began to fascinate the press, but concern friends and fans, who worried about the singer’s health, and that her inner demons were taking over. Many felt this side of her life grew in significance once she became involved with Blake Fielder-Civil, and the couple became regular tabloid fixtures during their eventful two year marriage.

Many blamed Fielder-Civil for extending his wife’s addictions into more dangerous territories, including crack cocaine and heroin, and for tarnishing her reputation by becoming involved in criminal and violent acts with which she became unfairly associated. Certainly Winehouse’s professional career took a turn for the worse, and not just because of the frequent tabloid scandal, but also as her live performances became unpredictable and, sometimes, unwatchable. Meanwhile her label waited patiently for a follow up to ‘Back To Black’.

Despite famously dissing rehab in her song of the same name, Winehouse did try on numerous occasions to kick her addictions, often utilising rehab facilities, and seemed to enjoy some success, especially after splitting from Fielder-Civil. But there were false starts when trying to resurrect her pop career, most recently when she was booed during a shambolic live show in Belgrade.

Yet, despite everything, Winehouse, more than most pop stars caught up in the hell of drink and drug addiction, retained a sizable dedicated fanbase who desperately wanted the singer to get back to her peak, and who were still waiting with some anticipation for the promised third album.

Winehouse had other projects, in particular setting up Island imprint Lioness Records to launch the musical career of her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield. Winehouse’s last public appearance was onstage during Bromfield’s appearance at the iTunes festival last week, where she encouraged the audience to go out and buy her protege’s new album.

Winehouse died on Saturday at her Camden home. The cause of her death is as yet unknown. Coming during a weekend when the news agenda was dominated by a tragedy of inconceivable proportions elsewhere in Europe, Winehouse’s sudden passing was nevertheless worldwide news as friends, fans and the wider music community came to terms with the passing, far too soon, of one of the 21st Century’s greatest British vocalists.



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