Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983 - 23 July 2011)

Hailing from North London the vocal prodigy known as Amy Winehouse spent her early years balancing boyfriends and school just like most teenagers. However unlike her peers she was secretly maturing one of the most distinctive sets of vocal chords known to man.

Not being one to rest on her god given gift of vocal supremacy Amy’s love of all things Jazz moulded her into the finished article we marvel at today. Vocally Amy's sound may be more suited to a 50’s Manhattan basement club with swirling smoke and crushed velvet curtains but with her use of forefront beats and no surrender lyrics she is well and truly planted in the present.

Amy Winehouse knows she is a city girl and her debut album “Frank” (2003) holds no punches when it comes to delivery, scratchy beats interlaced with uplifting horns and a swinging Wurlitzer which perfectly balances the darker agonised lyrical content. The album also brought awards recognition with "stronger than me" winning a much converted Ivor Novello award for songwriting. Things were going well for Amy but they were about to get a damn site better with the release of her second album “Back to Black” (2006). For the second album Amy worked again with "Frank" producer Salaam Remi and also brought in, man of the moment, Mark Ronson.

Back to Black has been critically acclaimed across the world as well as bringing home 5 Grammy awards and a Brit award. All this success has bought its problems for Amy and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil their self destructive, drug laden life style has made them tabloid targets and has led to spells in jail and various other scrapes with the legal system.

Amy Winehouse was found dead at her London home on 23rd July 2011. The police report the cause of death is "as yet unexplained" and that her death was "non-suspicious".