💿 Discography
📖 Biography
Amy Winehouse was the most extraordinary soul and jazz voice of the 21st century. Born in London in 1983, her dark contralto timbre and jazz phrasing — indebted to Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan — were unlike anything in contemporary pop. Her debut Frank (2003) showed precocious talent; Back to Black (2006) was a revelation.
Produced by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, Back to Black combined the sound of 1960s girl groups, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and raw personal confession into an album that sold over 20 million copies worldwide and won five Grammy Awards in 2008 — a record at the time for a British artist. Rehab, Tears Dry on Their Own and the title track remain defining songs of the decade.
Her personal struggles with addiction were public and painful, and she died in July 2011 at the age of 27. The documentary Amy (2015) won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She remains the most gifted and most mourned artist of her era.