My second favourite singer ever - Amy Winehouse

  

Amy Winehouse and her father Mitch, 2010

Jewish News - Times of Israel

Amy Winehouse’s (1983-2011) family left Minsk in 1890 and followed the fam­iliar route from the East End of London to its northern sub­urbs. Music was everywhere! Amy's maternal uncles were profess­ional jazz music­ians, and her paternal grandmother, Cynthia, was a jazz sing­er. Her father Mitch often sang Frank Sinatra songs to her. 

 As a young girl, Amy suffered from eat­ing and anxiety disorders, and fame made the situation worse. Luckily in 1992, grand­­ma Cynthia suggested that Amy attend the Susi Earn­shaw Theatre School in Barn­et, where she went weekly to learn vocals and danc­ing. She attended the school for 4 years and founded a rap group, before seeking full-time training at Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marb­le Arch.

At 13, Amy received a guitar as a gift and began to compose. She appeared in several bars in the city and later, at 15, she began writing music and was soon working as an entertain­ment jour­nalist for World Ent­ertainment News Net­work. In July 2000, she became the main female vocalist with the Nat­ional Youth Jazz Orchestra.

My own singing passion was Janis Joplin (1943-70) who died long before Amy was born. The artistic abilities of both Jop­lin and Winehouse were well known for: great vocal re­cords; their way of exp­res­sing emotions via a melody; for being two of the great soul artists; and for their self-destructive lifestyle. The women perf­ormed with an appreciation of music’s ­last­ing effect of touching the soul.

In mid-1999, her boyfriend was a singer named Tyler Jam­es who gave his producer a recording of Amy. Thus she began her musical career at 16, signing her first con­tract with Simon Fuller. After that, a representative of Universal heard Amy sing and pres­ented her to the company. They quickly signed her second contract.

Amy’s debut album was called Frank (2003), named after Frank Sin­atra. Winehouse co-wrote almost every jazz-influenced song! The album received critical accl­aim for the cool, critical gaze in its lyrics; in fact this work gave her a nomination in the Mercury Music Awards and an Ivor Novello Award in 2004.

Amy met Blake Fielder-Civil in a London bar, and started a romance. In 2005, Blake ended the relationship with Amy to return to his ex-girlfriend, causing Amy to go through a time of consumption of pills for depression, violent mood swings and serious bulimia. Her manag­er tried to let her family know; Amy was very angry.

Amy Winehouse was her own worst critic. She desperately wanted to have chil­dren, but didn’t. She claimed to not be ambitious, yet she never stopped putting pen to paper. When she sang about “standing by her man” in Some Unholy War (2006), her voice effort­lessly trav­elled from female subservience to swaggering domin­at­ion. She could be love­­lorn, and then turn that emotion on its head in stinging lyr­ics. None of these contradictions were new, and they were inherent in the music Amy loved.

  

Amy Winehouse sang Back To Black 

in the studio with Mark Ronson

NME.com

Winehouse's powerful contralto vocals were compared with those of Sarah Vaughan (1924–90). She once desc­ribed Vaughan’s vocal as be­ing like a reed instrument, like a clar­inet. It was the sadness that drew her in, and from the depths of that despair she brought a light that flickered dangerously. But her broad kohl eyeliner and beehive hair were all her own, armour she requ­ired to face the press, even as her fans continued to love her.

Amy’s embodiment of jazz and R&B ev­ol­ved between her two records Frank and her seminal Back To Black (2006). In this, her second and last studio album, she expressed her hardest personal experiences, her insolent vision of affectionate relationships and her submerg­ence into drugs and alcohol. Strong lyrics! Months later Amy re­sumed her relation­ship with Blake and they married in Miami.

Her great hit Rehab (2006) began as a joke in a conversation with producer Mark Ronson, who told her the line, “They tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no, no”. The rest came to her in five minutes. In­fluenced by Blake, Amy began to try stronger drugs. Two months af­ter the wedding, Amy was hospitalised for an over­dose. In June 2007, she was nom­inated for the Mercury Prize for that record!

In 2008 Amy went on to win 5 of her 6 nomin­ations but could not attend because the US denied her a visa (due to her drugs). So she finally “attended” via satellite from London.

Winehouse developed emphysema as a result of smoking crack cocaine and endless cigarettes. She gave a string of highly successful performances during 2008, but in June she was suddenly hospitalised with a serious lung condition. Amazingly she left hospital for one evening to perform for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebration in Hyde Park.

They divorced in 2009 but her destructive alcoh­ol and drugs continued. Often on stage she appeared drunk, or she had to can­cel concerts altogether. On July 20th 2011, she was on stage at Cam­den Roundhouse, her final public appearance.

On 23rd July 2011, at 27, Amy Winehouse was found dead (from alcohol poisoning) in her London flat. Dad Mitch, who recently recorded and released his own jazz album, was perform­ing at New York’s Blue Note that week, but flew straight home for the funeral. The Club of the 27, artists who died at 27 from drugs and alcohol, expanded eg Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin etc.

Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait at the Jewish Museum London in 2017 showed the real Amy through her personal belongings, from family photographs to fashion. The items reflected Amy’s love for her family, London and music.

Beyond Black — The Style of Amy Winehouse was to be an exhibit at Los Ang­eles’ Grammy Museum in 2020. Pandemic allowing, the exhibit featured Winehouse’s most memor­ab­le outfits and other ward­robe it­ems, her perfume, handwritten lyrics, diaries, home videos, awards, her record collection and her vint­age radio. Be­hind a glass case there was a list of her ambitions for fame.