At the age of 12, Amy Winehouse wrote a school essay explaining why she wanted to become a singer. “I want people to hear my voice,” she said, “and just forget their troubles for five minutes.” But in recent years, the Grammy Award winner’s own troubles with drink, drugs, and depression all but drowned out her rich, inimitable, and soul-infused sound.
Born to a Jewish family in north London, Winehouse grew up listening to her taxi-driver father’s Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday records. She also loved hip-hop, and at age 10 formed a rap group called Sweet ’n’ Sour. (She was Sour.) At 13 Winehouse won a scholarship to London’s Sylvia Young Theatre School, but was expelled two years later “for having her nose pierced and refusing to focus on her academic work,” said the London Independent.
In 2003, she released her debut album, Frank, which established her as a rising star in the U.K. But it was Winehouse’s second album, Back to Black—recorded with pop R&B producer Mark Ronson and New York soul band the Dap-Kings—that transformed her into an international sensation. “With thick horns and club-ready hip-hop beats, the album was a darkly stylish update of classic 1960s R&B,” said The New York Times. Hit singles like “Rehab”—whose refrain, “They tried to make me go to rehab / I said ‘no, no, no,’” crystallized Winehouse’s persona—also showed a blunt honesty rarely seen on the pop charts. The album picked up five Grammys and sold more than 2.3 million copies in the U.S. alone.
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But as Back to Black raced up the charts, Winehouse’s personal demons began to wreck her career. Tabloid newspapers chronicled her booze- and crack-fueled binges, canceled concerts, repeat arrests, and trips to rehab. Her final public appearance—just three days before she was found dead in her London apartment—was at a gig by her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield. Winehouse, 27, took to the stage, danced in circles, and disappeared without singing a note. “What makes this so horribly, irredeemably sad is that we watched one of the brightest talents of a generation give up and give in,” said Spin, “and no one could stop her.”
