With industry interest under her belt and a publishing deal with EMI, she began to work on her debut album influenced by a seeming history of African American music beyond her years, her talent seemed fresh, striking and different. Her boyfriend Tyler James passed a tape of her work to Simon Fuller’s 19 management, and soon she had signed a deal with Island Records after A&R man Darcus Beese heard her unidentified voice on a track and decided to find out who the vocal talent was. Her reputation for singing grew, and by 2000 she was one of the featured vocalists in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Displaying a gift for playing guitar and singing, she was one of the pupils at the BRIT School for Performing Arts in Croydon, a veritable breeding ground for talent.

At nine years old Winehouse attended the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, before moving on to the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the age of 14. Her mother’s family had several professional jazz musicians in it, and her father, Mitch, was obsessed with Sinatra and would sing to her frequently. Her distinctive vocal style demonstrated her love of jazz her subject matter was resolutely personal and English.Īmy Winehouse was born in Southgate, North London on 14 September 1983, to a taxi driver father and a pharmacist mother. Winehouse took this palette of styles and influences and developed it into something surprising, different and interesting. Winehouse broke through at a time when neo-soul, as typified by artists such as Jill Scott, Maxwell and Musiq Soulchild, was all the rage in the US, but was largely unfamiliar to UK ears. She also won the Ivor Novello Award three times. In 2007 she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Artist she had also been nominated for Best British Album. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then-record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, it included three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Her debut album, Frank, was ‘nominated for the Mercury Prize. If awards are truly a measure of success then Amy’s short career was steller in the extreme.

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