Amy Jade Winehouse was a British singer and songwriter. She is known for her distinctive contralto vocals, expressive and autobiographical songwriting, and eclectic blend of genres such as soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz.
Her music, along with her fashion and highly publicised personal life, made her an influential figure in popular culture.
real name: Amy Jade Winehouse
labels: Universal Music Group, Island Records, Republic Records
genres: soul, rhythm and blues, jazz, neo soul, blue-eyed soul, contemporary R&B, reggae
influenced by: Erykah Badu, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Meredith Monk
awards: Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Echo Pop Award for the Album of the Year
plays: guitar, drum kit, voice
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Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 at Chase Farm Hospital in Gordon Hill in Enfield, London, to Jewish parents. Her father, Mitchell "Mitch" Winehouse, was an amateur singer and taxi driver, and her mother, Janis Winehouse (née Seaton), was a pharmacist. She had an older brother, Alex. Winehouse was raised in Southgate, London. When she was five, she began attending Osidge Primary School. She then started her secondary education at Ashmole School, where her grades were "surprisingly good" according to her mother. As a child, she attended a weekly cheder, a Jewish primary school. In a later interview, she said she disliked the school, recalling that she often begged her father to let her stay home and felt she "learned nothing...
Winehouse was signed to Simon Fuller's 19 Management in 2002 and was initially paid £250 a week against future earnings. While being developed by the management company, Winehouse was kept as a recording industry secret, although she was a regular jazz standards singer at the Cobden Club. Her future A&R representative at Island, Darcus Beese, heard of her by chance when the manager of the Lewinson Brothers showed him some productions of his clients, which featured Winehouse as key vocalist. When he asked who the singer was, the manager told him he was not allowed to say. Having decided that he wanted to sign her, it took several months of asking around for Beese to eventually discover who the singer was. By that time, Winehouse had already...
Winehouse was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including rhythm and blues, soul, (sometimes labelled as blue-eyed soul and neo soul), and jazz. She was described as a "retro-soul" singer by Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Nation, and Billboard. The BBC's Garry Mulholland called Winehouse "the pre-eminent vocal talent of her generation". According to AllMusic's Cyril Cordor, she was one of the UK's premier singers during the 2000s. "Fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals". In The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan later wrote that "her idolisation of Dinah Washington and the Ronettes distinguished her from...
Soon after Winehouse's death, a number of prominent critics assessed the singer's legacy. Maura Johnston from The Village Voice said, "When she was on, Winehouse had few peers—she wasn't an octave-jumper like other big divas of the moment, but her contralto had a snap to it that enriched even the simplest syllables with a full spectrum of emotion". Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker proclaimed, "Nobody can match Winehouse's unique transitions or her utterly weird phrasings. She sounded like an original sixties soul star, developed when the landscape had no rules. But now untrammelled traditionalism is in the lead and her beautiful footnote has been cut short. American soul—through visionaries like Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe and Jill...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Back to Black" is a song by the English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, released on 26 April 2007 by Island Records as the third single from her second and final studio album of the same name (2006). The song was written by Winehouse and Mark Ronson, and produced by the latter.
"Back to Black" was inspired by Winehouse's relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, who had left her for an ex-girlfriend.
"Back to Black" was written by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson with the latter also serving as its producer. The track was recorded in three studios – Chung King Studios and Daptone Studios located in New York City and Metropolis Studios in London.
"Back to Black" received universal critical acclaim. A writer from the website 4Music awarded the song ten stars out of ten in a review saying it was as good as the 1960s girl group classics that influenced it. The writer praised the "thoroughly modern Amy, who writes her own songs about love and sex and drugs and knows her own mind, but still gets hurt in a way only grown-ups can get hurt". Matt Harvey from BBC felt that the song owed to the "sonic heritage" of singers Phil Spector and Scott Walker and called it "a tortured monster of a track - Amy displaying the sort of vocal depth that Marc Almond has always dreamed of". AllMusic writer John Bush found universality in the song and opined that even Joss Stone could take it to the top of...
The music video was directed by Phil Griffin and features a funeral procession in which Winehouse mourns over a grave that reads "R.I.P. the Heart of Amy Winehouse". The shot of the headstone was edited out after the singer's death in 2011. The video was primarily shot near Gibson Gardens and Chesholm Road in Stoke Newington, London. The graveyard scenes were filmed at Abney Park Cemetery in northeast London. According to the official Winehouse website, "Amy's sultry new video for Back in Black [sic] is both beautifully and artistically shot in black-and-white and compares in imagery a doomed love affair with that of a funeral." At the 2007 Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO), the music video was nominated for Best Video but lost to Kanye...
On 1 April 2013 E! Online announced that American singer Beyoncé would cover the song with André 3000 for The Great Gatsby soundtrack, set to be released on 7 May 2013. Baz Luhrmann, the director of the film, revealed that "Back to Black" was the final song to be included on the album. The song was suggested for the soundtrack by Beyoncé's husband and rapper Jay Z, who also served as its executive producer. "We were looking for, 'How do we have a darker moment?' and he said have a listen to this and he played it", commented Luhrmann, who, after a few spins, confirmed it should appear on the album. Anton Monsted, who served as a producer for the soundtrack, talked about the placement of the cover of "Back to Black" on the track listing...
"Tears Dry on Their Own" is a song by the English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse from her second and final studio album, Back to Black (2006). It was released on 13 August 2007 as the album's fourth single.
While the melody and lyrics are composed by Winehouse, the music behind her voice is an interpolation of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 1967 song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", penned by Ashford & Simpson. The original ballad version of the track is featured on the posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011).
"Tears Dry on Their Own" has been described by NME as a "Motown-influenced pop song", while Billy Hamilton of Drowned in Sound believed the song to be a soul song. The song was originally written in the key of E major.
Tears Dry on Their Own's music video was shot in Los Angeles, and directed by David LaChapelle on 22 May 2007. Featuring Winehouse making her way down Hollywood Blvd and in a dim motel room, the video features the Grand Motel at 1479 S La Cienega Blvd, in Los Angeles. The hotel room is a nod to the ones she would stay in while waiting for her to-be-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil to arrive. The music video for this song was the second to last filmed before Winehouse's death on 23 July 2011.
"You Know I'm No Good" is a song written and performed by the English singer Amy Winehouse from her second and final studio album, Back to Black (2006). "You Know I'm No Good" was released as the second single from Back to Black on 8 January 2007.
Originally recorded as a solo track, it was remixed with guest vocals from the Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah. The original appeared on Winehouse's album, while the version with Ghostface Killah appears on his album More Fish.
The music video, directed by Phil Griffin (who also directed the video for her previous hit "Rehab"), was released to music channels in late November 2006. The video features Winehouse in numerous settings including a bar, a bedroom, and a bathtub. The plot is based around Winehouse's fictional character's relationship with the male character in the video. Video was shot by director of photography Adam Frisch and the sets were built at 3 Mills Studios in East London.
The single was released in the UK on 8 January 2007. The track made it onto BBC Radio 1's A-list playlist. A UK edit of the remix featuring Ghostface Killah was also sent to radio, and to download services, and the original full-length US version, featuring Ghostface Killah name-checking Kelly Clarkson amongst others, also received airplay in the United States, where it was added to numerous Rhythmic radio stations.
Critical response to the single was positive. For the week of 16 January 2007, the track was chosen as the Single of the Week on the US iTunes Store as a free download. Newsweek also chose the song as its Pick of the Week for 15 January of the same year. Billboard found that the track—"in original form—could be no better"; however, it acknowledged that the Ghostface Killah remix added a "ferocious discordant sputter at the midsection." People magazine called the track "instantly memorable."
"Help Yourself" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse from her debut studio album Frank (2003). Released as the album's fourth and final single on 23 August 2004 as a double A-side with "Fuck Me Pumps" (Pumps), it reached number 65 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song was not included on the U.S. release of Frank. A radio edit was released for promotional purposes.
"Fuck Me Pumps" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse from her debut studio album, Frank (2003). Written by Winehouse and Salaam Remi, the song was released in the United Kingdom as the album's fourth and final single on 23 August 2004 under the title "Pumps"—with "Help Yourself" as its coupling track—reaching number 65 on the UK Singles Chart.
A clean radio edit was released for promotional purposes.