Amy Winehouse
Multi-awarded Hall of Famer British artist of the 21st century, Amy Jade Winehouse was popularly known for her powerful contralto vocals and her distinctive fusion of R&B, soul and jazz.
Born on the 14th of September 1983 in the suburb of Southgate, North London to cab driver Mitch Winehouse and pharmacist Janis Winehouse. She grew up in a jazz environment with her uncles being professional jazz musicians and her grandmother actually having a romantic link with British jazz legend Ronnie Scott.
At the age of 10, she was quite drawn to the rebellious music of TLC, Salt-N-Pepa and other American R&B hiphop artists that she sometimes toyed with her brother’s guitar and composed her own music. Two years later, she was granted a privilege of enrolling at Sylvia Young Theatre School, a prestigious school for the arts. She received her own guitar a year after. She began working as a showbiz journalist for the World Entertainment News Network and had gigs with local group Bolsha band. However, at 16 she was expelled for certain rebellious acts and piercing her nose. In 2002, she signed to Simon Fuller’s 19 Management and was kept an industry secret while she recorded a number of songs and signed a publishing deal with EMI. That same year she was discovered by A&R representative Darcus Beese under Island/Universal Records after her then boyfriend, James Tyler submitted her demo tape to his label A&R.
With her quick rise to fame began with her debut album of “Frank” by producer Salaam Remi in October 20, 2003. In this album she co-wrote most of the songs and made two covers in her own jazz rendition. The positive reviews of her album then compared her being at par or even exceeding the vocal talents of her then idol Sarah Vaughn and Macy Gray. In 2004, her album rose to the UK album charts and was nominated in the BRIT awards in the categories of “British Female Solo Artist” and “British Urban Act”. It went platinum and later on bagged the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song together with Salaam Remi for her contribution to the first single “Stronger than Me”.
Winehouse then continued creating and releasing albums with chart-topping songs and bagging awards after awards. Notable one was her album “Back to Black” which won her five awards during the 2008 Grammys Awards for “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” for the single “Rehab”, “Best Pop Vocal Album”, the “Best New Artist” and her album “Back to black” was nominated “Album of the Year”. In fact all these earned her a spot at the Guinness World Book of Records for Most Grammy Awards won by a British Female Act. Even after that prestigious acknowledgement, Winehouse continued producing chart-topping albums, performing at international concerts and winning more awards.
For Amy Winehouse, the life of an acclaimed British jazz sensation is not all glitz and glamour. In fact, despite all her recognition and contribution to jazz music, she has been an alcoholic and an all-type substance abuser partying and getting wasted in bars and in her own night club “Snakehips at the Monarch” in Camden Monarch venue in London, having this erratic and disturbing behavior, going to rehab and back, as well as getting arrested and jailed a couple of times. She’s another exclaimed tabloid baby next to the infamous Paris Hilton and Britney Spears with so many paparazzi pictures and videos of her smoking crack in the internet and every news or celebrity gossip.
She died the 23rd of July 2011 at the young age of 27 for reasons yet to be established.
Edited: September 18th, 2011