Amy Winehouse
On stage she was always a singer who gave away more than she truly had.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people beside her ⏳🌊
- FamilyCynthia Levy
Her paternal grandmother, the first to play her jazz.
- FamilyMitch Winehouse
Her father, a taxi driver.
- SupportNick Shymansky
The manager who recognized her teenage voice and guided her to a debut.
- ColleagueMark Ronson
The producer who made "Back to Black" and "Valerie" with her.
- PeerTony Bennett
The jazz great who shared one of her last recordings.
- InfluenceAdele
A younger BRIT School alumna, a contemporary singer who has said she was influenced by Amy's music.
I. The girl from Southgate, London · 1983–1993
(Birth) She was born in September 1983 in Southgate, in north London. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, was a taxi driver, and her mother, Janis Winehouse, was a pharmacist. She came from a family of Jewish immigrants and grew up alongside her older brother, Alex. (Grandmother) Her paternal grandmother, Cynthia Levy, had sung jazz as a young woman and was close to the people of London's jazz clubs. It was her grandmother who played Amy the records of Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Tony Bennett. As a little girl, Amy is said to have amused herself by imitating those voices. (Divorce) Her parents divorced the year she turned nine. That divorce, coming when she was nine, stayed with Amy for a long time as a sense of loss. It is why so many of the songs she later wrote carry both distrust of and longing for men of her father's generation. (Rebellion) At school she was known as a difficult child. She often defied the rules, and by around thirteen she had already started smoking. Music was the one thing she could lose herself in.
II. Jazz and Sylvia Young · 1993–2002
(Sylvia Young) Around the age of ten she entered the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where she studied singing and acting. Her brash manner and frequent rebellion brought her into conflict with the school, and at around fifteen she moved to another. (BRIT School) In her late teens she briefly studied music at the BRIT School. Adele, who attended the same school a few years later, would one day say that Amy's music had a great influence on her. (Jazz) At fourteen she taught herself guitar, and at sixteen she joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, where she learned scat and jazz standards. The influence of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan became the backbone of her singing style in this period. (Discovery) In her teens, Nick Shymansky, a scout for the management company 19 Management, recognized her voice. Shymansky passed her demo to Island Records, and a record deal soon followed.
III. Frank, a first voice · 2002–2004
(Writing) In 2002 she began work on her debut album, “Frank.” She wrote most of the lyrics herself, something rare for a pop singer in her late teens at the time. With producer Salaam Remi she shaped arrangements that blended jazz, hip-hop and soul. (Title) The album's title, “Frank,” is said to carry both her admiration for Frank Sinatra and the English word frank, meaning candid. (Release) Released in October 2003, the album went platinum in Britain and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize the following year. Its track “Stronger Than Me” won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song. (Attitude) In interview after interview she said fame itself held no interest for her. She simply wanted to write good songs, she said, and she found publicity and photo shoots a burden.
The opening track of her debut album, “Frank,” it works through her frustration with a boyfriend softer than herself in the idiom of jazz.
- The vocal, which begins coolly in the low register and pushes the feeling higher toward the chorus, sounds as if it borrowed the flow of jazz singers' lines (phrasing) wholesale.
- Between verses, a singing style that stretches a single syllable across several winding notes (melisma) appears briefly, underscoring the nuance of the lyrics.
- An arrangement that blends guitar plucked on the weak parts of the beat (offbeat guitar) with a body of horns (brass section) lends a maturity of tone unexpected from a teenage pop star.
- Salaam Remi's production layers hip-hop beats and jazz chords with ease, foreshadowing the direction of “Back to Black.”
IV. Blake and Back to Black · 2005–2006
(Meeting) In 2005 she met Blake Fielder-Civil in a pub in Camden, London. From then on the two broke up and reunited again and again. (Breakup and songs) During their first separation she poured her hurt and lingering attachment into songs. Those songs became the backbone of her second album, “Back to Black.” (Production) Production was split between Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi. Ronson's arrangements, recreating 1960s Motown and girl-group sound, were praised for bringing old soul records back to life as the sound of today. (Rehab) The first single, “Rehab,” came from a real episode in which she refused when those around her urged her to go into rehab. She is said to have answered that what she needed was not a hospital but songs. (Marriage) She married Blake in May 2007, a marriage that ended in divorce in 2009. The relationship's ups and downs run all through the album, steeped most deeply in the mood of songs such as “Love Is a Losing Game” and “You Know I'm No Good.”
A song drawn from the real episode in which she was urged to enter rehab and refused, it was the first single from “Back to Black” and a worldwide hit.
- The intro's drums and a rhythm that hits hard on the second and fourth beats (backbeat) immediately call to mind the Motown sound of the 1960s.
- In the chorus, a singing style that roughens and cracks the voice as if scraping it (grit) turns a defiant attitude into sound.
- An arrangement in which a body of horns (brass section) jabs in and out to support the chorus gives the whole song an air at once buoyant and resolute.
- Her live performance at the 2008 Grammys, sung via satellite link from a London studio, is still talked about for the contrast between her restrained gestures and her explosive singing.
The title track, which faces her breakup with Blake head-on, is the emotional backbone of the whole album.
- Her vocal, moving through the low register, swings between resignation and anger, and the feeling gains its weight in the passage just before the chorus where she clips her breath short.
- A low melodic line that repeats in the low register and forms the song's backbone (bass riff) gives it the gravity of a funeral march.
- Percussion such as timpani and the string arrangement drive the song steadily darker, creating the sense, just as the title says, of being stained black.
- The image of a funeral procession in the music video completes the song's dark mood visually.
V. The Grammys and the world's gaze · 2007–2008
(Grammys) At the 2008 Grammy Awards she swept five categories, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Rehab.” Unable to appear in person because of a problem with her U.S. visa, she sang via satellite link from a studio in London. (Valerie) Earlier, in 2007, she had taken part in Mark Ronson's covers album “Version,” singing a new take on the Zutons' song “Valerie.” Unlike the original, its buoyant, horn-led arrangement made it a major hit. (Spotlight) As her fame grew, the paparazzi grew more relentless. The press followed her every move, and in this period her health began visibly to decline. (Stage) Even so, on stage she remained overwhelming. Live, she layered rougher, more improvised scat and ad-libs over the songs than in the studio versions, singing the same song differently every time.
A remake of the Zutons' original, sung anew with Mark Ronson, it became the occasion for her to reach a far wider public.
- Unlike the original's indie-rock arrangement, an arrangement recreating old soul (retro soul), led by a buoyant body of horns (brass section) and strings, makes it sound like an entirely new song.
- In the chorus, a singing style that uses the voice lightly, as if bouncing it, adds a buoyant rhythmic feel to the whole song.
- Drums that hit hard on the second and fourth beats (backbeat) and a bouncy low melodic line (bass riff) create a rhythmic feel that makes the body move of its own accord (groove).
- Mark Ronson's production shows off his particular gift for translating the old Motown sound into the pop language of today.
A song that won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song, it is striking for its quiet resignation, likening love to a gamble.
- A spare arrangement of nothing but acoustic guitar and strings produces the deepest resonance without any showy technique.
- As the song moves toward the chorus, her voice sinks lower and lower, painting resignation with quiet composure.
- Borrowing the chord progression of an old soul ballad wholesale, it achieves a texture that feels freshly lifted from a 1960s record.
- On the stages of several awards ceremonies in 2007, set against other, flashier songs, it was sung in the most restrained of arrangements and left a deep impression.
VI. From Castries to Camden · 2009–2011
(Recuperation) In 2009 she spent several months in Castries, Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, trying to recover. She was said to have cut back on drugs during this period, but her drinking problem persisted. (Return) Back in London, she stayed at her home in Camden. There was talk of a new album in the works, but no clear progress was made. (Belgrade) In June 2011, during a European tour, she was unable to sustain her songs at a concert in Belgrade, Serbia, and the remaining dates were canceled. It turned out to be, in effect, her last public performance. (Death) On July 23, 2011, she was found dead at her home in Camden. She was twenty-seven. The inquest found that her blood alcohol level was the cause of death. Since this was the same age at which Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin had died, her name was once again spoken in connection with the so-called “27 Club.”
A duet with Tony Bennett, it is one of her last sessions, recorded just months before her death.
- Over the relaxed swing rhythm typical of jazz standards (set tunes that each singer reinterprets in their own style), the voices of two generations trade lines as if in conversation.
- Her husky timbre, set against Bennett's seasoned low register, gives the duet its tension.
- In the passages where they briefly trade improvised singing on wordless syllables (scat), the quick wit of both singers comes through.
- A restrained arrangement of only strings and piano puts the full focus on the two voices.
VII. The voice that remains · 2011
(Posthumous release) Released after her death, “Body and Soul” was her duet with Tony Bennett, recorded in March 2011, a few months before she died. Bennett later named it one of the most memorable moments of his long career. (Documentary) In 2015 the documentary “Amy” was released and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Through unreleased footage and her own recorded voice, it cast new light on her life. (Foundation) Her family established the Amy Winehouse Foundation in her name, which continues to work on helping young people with addiction. (Influence) Her voice and her way of phrasing left a clear mark on the generations that followed. Adele has said that Amy's music inspired her to sing.
Lesser-known stories
In 2008 she is said to have written and recorded a song with Mark Ronson as a candidate for the theme of the Bond film “Quantum of Solace.” In the end the official theme went to Jack White and Alicia Keys's “Another Way to Die,” and her version, never officially released, remained a story passed around only among music fans. It remains a story passed around among fans, never officially released. On her arm was a pin-up tattoo honoring her grandmother Cynthia. Cynthia died of lung cancer in 2006, which, as it happens, coincided with the very period when she was deep in writing “Back to Black.” The album is usually spoken of as a work about her breakup with Blake alone, but it is less widely known that the grief of losing her grandmother around that time also seeps through it.
Glossary notes 📚🔎
Melisma
(Meaning) The word comes from the Greek melos (song, melody). (In pop) It refers to a singing style in which several notes are wound across a single syllable. It is like stretching and bending a single syllable at karaoke.
Backbeat
(In pop) It refers to a drum pattern that hits the second and fourth beats of a four-beat rhythm especially hard. It is the same beat people usually clap along to.
Grit
(Meaning) The English word grit originally means small grains of sand, coarse particles. (In pop) It refers to a singing style in which the voice is deliberately roughened, as if scraped. Making it sound slightly hoarse is a way to deliver emotion raw.
Bass riff
(In pop) It refers to a low melodic line, repeated in short phrases in the lower register, that underpins the rhythmic feel (groove) of the whole song. Like the steady stamp of feet when jumping rope, it is the backbone that keeps repeating the same pattern beneath the song.
Brass section
(Meaning) The English word brass means the metal alloy, and it serves as a collective name for metal wind instruments such as the trumpet and trombone. (In pop) It refers to a group of wind instruments — trumpets, trombones, saxophones — that punch in and out in short bursts in time with the rhythm. It is like the horns of a school festival band lending force to the chorus.
Retro soul
(In pop) It refers to a style that re-creates 1960s soul and the Motown sound in a present-day way. Much like using a filter to make an old photograph look black and white, it brings an old sound back to life. (Elsewhere) In fashion, too, retro is commonly used to mean bringing old styles back into vogue.
Scat
(In pop) In jazz, it refers to a style of improvised singing on wordless syllables. It is like humming meaningless sounds as a kind of wordplay.