DelightFULL studio’s fuel is music, this is not a secret. And the history of the brand would never be the same without Amy Winehouse’s life to inspire it. Amy Winehouse won five Grammy Awards for her 2006 album Back to Black, and the artist will always be remembered through songs like “Rehab,” “Back to Black” and “Valerie.” She died in 2011, at age 27, but she will never be forgotten.
SEE ALSO: Amy Winehouse, by Jean Paul Gaultier
Amy Jade Winehouse was born in Enfield to parents Mitchell, a taxi driver, and Janis, a pharmacist. She has one older brother, Alex.
Growing up in the Southgate area of Enfield, Winehouse went to Southgate School and then Ashmole School. She was introduced to music at an early age by her parents whose tastes ran from Carole King and James Taylor to the jazz classics her father favoured. At age 10, Winehouse and a friend formed a short-lived rap band called Sweet and Sour and then at 12, Winehouse entered the Sylvia Young Theatre School.
In early 2003, Winehouse met Blake Fielder-Civil, a music video production assistant, at a local bar. The two began a stormy relationship and Winehouse had his name tattooed over her heart.
In 2005, Winehouse teamed up with producer Mark Ronson and began writing her second album after an 18-month song-writing hiatus. Winehouse said Ronson’s involvement was so inspirational she wrote the album in six months.
Winehouse’s tempestuous relationship with Fielder-Civil was the catalyst for much of her destructive behaviour. During one break-up Winehouse admitted to drowning her sorrows in booze but she also used the heart-break as impetus in writing her new album. Her drug and alcohol intake increasingly affected her live performances, as she turned up to several club or TV performances too drunk to complete her set. Her management company suggested she enter rehab but rather than take their advice Winehouse dumped the management company and turned the experience into the catchiest song on her new album: “They tried to make me go to rehab. I said, ‘No, no, no’…”
RELATED STORY: Celebrate Amy Music With DelightFULL
Winehouse later told The Sun newspaper she did go to rehab but did not last long: “I did, for just 15 minutes. I went in and said, ‘Hello’ and explained that I drink because I’m in love and have f****** up the relationship. Then I walked out.”
‘Rehab’, the first single off the album, hit number seven on the UK charts and won Winehouse her second Ivor Novello award for song writing. The album won album of the year at the MTV Europe Music Awards and Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Rehab won numerous awards including Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Time magazine rated Rehab as the best song of 2007 praising Winehouse as ‘mouthy, funny, sultry, and quite possibly crazy’. ‘It’s impossible not to be seduced by her originality.
In early 2007, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil ended relationships with other partners and got back together. In May, the couple were married in Miami, Florida with Winehouse telling Rolling Stone magazine, ‘I know I’m talented but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mum and look after my family.’ In June of that year Winehouse, who has admitted to problems with depression and self-harm, was seen in a video posing for a photographer while scratching ‘I love Blake’ on her stomach with a shard of broken glass.
Two months later she was rushed to hospital in London suffering from ‘exhaustion’, though she later admitted it was a drug overdose. Shortly after, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil checked into a rehabilitation retreat in Essex, England, but checked out a few days later and went on holiday in St Lucia.
2008 was a memorable year for all the wrong reasons for Winehouse. Further breakdowns and attempts at intervention by her family all but brought promises of an exceptional career to a shuddering halt. Her turbulent marriage to Fielder-Civil continued to deteriorate to the point that he requested a divorce, based on both claims of adultery and also to ‘save’ the life of his wife. They divorced in August 2009.
The singer hit the headlines in June 2011 when she opened what was supposed to be a 12-date European tour in Belgrade. Winehouse appeared to be a shadow of her former self and was booed off stage. The shambolic performance sparked a storm of media criticism and it was announced shortly afterwards that she would not be completing the tour. This was to be the last gig of her short career.
Amy was found dead in her Camden home by a member of her security team on 23 July 2011. The cause of death was established as accidental alcohol poisoning.
Her parents released a statement saying they have been left bereft by the 27-year-old’s death, while her record company Universal Republic said they were ‘deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer’.
Her funeral took place in London on 26 July 2011.
SEE ALSO: Amy Winehouse, by Jean Paul Gaultier
