Of course, I had heard the song “Rehab” with its catchy chorus sung to a blues jazz tune, and a drum beat as modern as her pierced lip. I was familiar enough with the song that I often caught myself singing it, or tapping my feet to the music which played in my head.

I was a fan of Amy Winehouse’s work without knowing anything about her, which is why I was thrilled to hear she would be performing on the show.

Before seeing her on The Late Show With David Letterman, I had no preconceived notions about what Amy Winehouse looked like, dressed like, or how she behaved. I only knew two things about her—first, that she had an amazing voice, and second, that she was black.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. With her hair styled in a beehive and wearing a black fifties styled dress which exposed her tattoos, her raven-black hair was a screaming contrast to her fair skin. Her stage presence could not have been more magnetic.

The moment she began to sing I was mesmerized and intrigued. Performing on the screen was one of the most contradictory individuals I had ever seen. A young woman with the voice of an old soul. An old-fashioned sense of style presented in a modern hipster way. A singer whose polished demeanour belied the rebelliousness evident in her lyrics. The unpredictability and diversity of Amy Winehouse was delightful.

Having tremendous vocal range and the gift of melodic rhythm, Amy called herself a “black girl in a white girl’s body.”

She was not just a singer, but gifted songwriter whose intuitive lyrics and memorable hooks brought her world-wide acclaim.

As much as she prided herself on not caring what others thought of her for being different, a part of her still longed to be recognized and appreciated for her art.

She once commented on how jazz artists are taken seriously and treated with respect in a way many other musicians are not, and how she wanted to be recognized on the level of a jazz musician. She scoffed at the music played by most radio stations, calling it “watered down.”

A visionary with fathomless depth and insatiable passion, she was a singer who wrote the songs she wanted to hear—songs which catapulted her career making her the first British female to ever win five Grammy Awards.

Despite her fame and success, Amy Winehouse suffered from depression, was even diagnosed as manic-depressive. Whether her increasing drug addictions were a result of self-medicating due to her depression can only be speculated.

Failed attempts at rehab and an ever growing drug addiction chronicled in media reports pictured the sharp decline of a once vibrant young woman whose voice and music were a gift to the world. “I’m an open book,” Amy once said. Drunken bouts, physical assaults, arrests, even smoking drugs while walking the streets of London, Amy’s spiralling health was recorded for the world to witness.

As destructive as she continued to be, the public displayed their grief and shock at the announcement of her death on July 23, 2011. Another young musician whose death added her to the list of the 27 Club—a list including Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain all who died at age 27.

Drugs, sex and rock and roll. Bisexuality, rehab, and a voice as hot as the sun. Amy Winehouse was a dreamer and idealist who proved to the world that embracing one’s differences will always find a common ground in art, and that those who do not sell-out are those who do not fade.

Unique, fierce and inspiring, Amy Winehouse will never be forgotten.

By Christina Westover, Author of Precipice

CHAPTER 1: EARLY LIFE

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To her mother, Janis, Amy Winehouse was a problem even before she was born.

The woman who would later have to resort to writing a letter to her troubled daughter via the News of the World Newspaper, to try and get her to change her ways and come home, had had a relatively easy time with her first child.

Alex Winehouse was born in 1979, with Janis interrupting her career as a pharmacy technician to take care of him while her husband Mitch brought the money into the house from his work as a double glazing salesman.

The Winehouse home was a happy one, often filled with music as Mitch loved jazz and Janis, born and raised in Brooklyn, enjoyed playing her favourite US singer-songwriter records, especially James Taylor and Carole King.

Janis, though, had suffered periodic bouts of a mystery illness and when she fell pregnant with her second child in early 1983, the symptoms worsened.

She was struck by a strange prickling sensation running up and down her limbs, coupled with an overwhelming tiredness.

Janis dismissed it as “just pins and needles” and in the weeks after the birth of Amy in September 1983 decided the tiredness must be down to sleepless nights with the new baby.

In fact, many years would go by before Janis’ illness was finally diagnosed. She suffered a total collapse, and tests showed she was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Her illness goes a long way to explaining why she felt unable to take a leading role in taming her daughter.

Even as a small child, Amy had been a worry for her parents – one time she almost choked to death on some cellophane. She would also pretend to be choking or, when she was old enough to be out by herself, deliberately go missing in a shopping centre, said Mitch. “What she really likes is for people to worry about her,” he said.

North London is an area with a large Jewish population, so the Winehouses were at home in the suburb of Southgate.

Rather than being a religious home, it was one with music at the centre.

Two of Amy’s uncles are professional jazz musicians, and her father Mitch always had a good singing voice – much later, he signed to a recording label. He would hold young Amy rapt with his versions of Frank Sinatra’s songs.

Amy was encouraged to sing, too, and was not to be discouraged from this once she started school. Teachers found it difficult to keep her quiet in class as she wanted to keep singing.

Amy couldn’t understand what the problem was. As far as she was concerned, she wasn’t misbehaving. She later said: “I was a good girl, I really liked school. I really liked learning. I wasn’t really a trouble-maker you know… not more than other kids.

“I’ve always sung. I always assumed that everyone could sing, that that’s what they do when they’re happy or sad.”

Janis encouraged both her children at their studies. She had taken an Open University science degree, then studied at the London School of Pharmacy, and her career success had seen the family move from a cramped two-bedroom flat to a semi, and then a pretty three-bedroom Victorian terrace.

She told the Daily Mail: “Amy was a beautiful child, always busy, always curious.

“She was always very cheery but she was also shy. She's never been an easy child.”

Mitch told Rolling Stone: “She was always very self-willed. Not badly behaved but...different.”

Amy was close to her father, and later would have “Daddy’s Girl” tattooed on her shoulder, but the family’s happiness was put under strain by the amount of time Mitch spent on the road with his job.

He met a woman, Jane, and began a long-term affair which he confessed to Janis.

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Introduction

CHAPTER 1: EARLY LIFE