Amy Winehouse

You could easily describe the career of Amy Winehouse as a career of two half’s. Born in 1983, the singer’s family had a long history of generating jazz singers. The Londoner attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School at twelve but was expelled after a year for not applying herself. She then moved to the BRIT School in Croydon, where alumni include Katie Melua and Luck Pritchard (The Kooks).

After turning to singing as a profession at sixteen, Winehouse was soon signed to 19 management and Universal Records.

For her debut album, ‘Frank,’ which was released in October 2003, Winehouse teamed up with Salaam Remi. Winehouse co-wrote eleven of the albums songs thirteen songs, with the other two additions being covers. The mainly Jazz inspired album reached number thirteen in the UK music charts and went platinum.

Despite the fact that she admitted she wasn’t 100% behind the albums sound, the album was well-received and helped her win an Ivor Novello song writing award for ‘Best Contemporary Song.’ She also received two BRIT award nominations and a Mercury Music Prize nomination for the LP.

By the 2006 release of, ‘Back To Black,’ Amy Winehouse had undergone a complete transformation – not just sound wise, but also her appearance had changed considerably. She dropped four dress sizes following comments made in the press about her weight and talk increased about an alleged problem with drink and drugs.

For, ‘Back To Black,’ Winehouse worked with American producer Mark Ronson. She proclaimed that Ronson had inspired her to start writing again. For this album, the sound was far more 50’s/60’s pop and soul than it was Jazz, and consequently Winehouse professed to having a total commitment to its roots.

The albums first single, ‘Rehab,’ stormed the charts because of its sing-a-long capabilities, eventually peeking at number seven. Although the follow-up single, ‘Your No I’m No Good,’ didn’t achieve such heights, it still showed the music press that Winehouse was a serious pretender.

‘Back To Black’ eventually climbed to number one in the album charts in January 2007.

Winehouse’s return to form was rewarded when she twice performed a medley of songs with Paul Weller, firstly at Camden’s Roundhouse and then on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’ – both times she was personally invited by The Jam legend to perform.