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AMY WINEHOUSE
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Amy-Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English soul, jazz, and R&B singer and songwriter.
Winehouse's debut album, Frank (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Winehouse is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner; once in 2004 for her debut single "Stronger than Me" and again in May 2007 for the first single "Rehab" from her 2006 album Back to Black. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist (she had also been nominated for Best British Album). On 17 July, Back to Black was announced as one of the 12 albums on the 2007 shortlist of Mercury Prize nominees and later that year she was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards.
Amy WInehouse
BiographyEarly life and musical influences
Winehouse was born in the district of Southgate located in Enfield, London to an English-Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians. Her father, Mitchell Winehouse, is a taxi driver, and her mother, Janis, is a pharmacist. She grew up in the suburb of Southgate, and attended Ashmole School. At around the age of 10, Winehouse founded a short-lived amateur rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour, as Sour. She described the group as "the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa". She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School when she was 12 years old but was expelled at 13 for "not applying herself" and piercing her own nose. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon.
Winehouse received her first guitar at age 13. By age 16, she was singing professionally after her friend, soul singer Tyler James, gave her demo tape to an A&R person. She signed to her current record label, Island/Universal, under management company 19 Management, Simon Fuller's management company.
2003–2004: Frank
Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released on 20 October 2003. It was produced mainly by Salaam Remi with many songs having jazz-influences and, apart from two covers, every song co-written by Winehouse. The album received positive reviews with compliments over the "cool, critical gaze" in its lyrics and brought comparisons of her voice to, amongst others, Sarah Vaughan and Macy Gray.
The album entered the upper levels of the UK album chart in 2004 when it was nominated for BRIT Awards in the categories of "British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". It went on to achieve platinum sales. Later in 2004, she won the Ivor Novello songwriting Award for "Best Contemporary Song" with her contribution to the first single, "Stronger Than Me" (alongside Salaam Remi). The album also made the short list for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. In the same year, she performed at the Glastonbury festival, on the Jazzworld stage, and at the V Festival.
After the release of the album, Winehouse commented that she was "only 80 percent behind [the] album" because of the inclusion by her record label of certain songs and mixes she disliked. Upon the release of her second album, she stated "I can’t even listen to Frank any more — in fact, I’ve never been able to. I like playing the tracks live because that’s different, but listening to them is another story." She later clarified this, saying "I listen to it differently now. I am still really proud of it, I still think it's a great album. But, with hindsight, there are some things I would have done differently... Just because I would do things a bit differently now doesn't mean I don't like what's on that album."
Amy WInehouse performing at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City
2006–2007: Back to Black
In early 2006, demonstration tracks such as "Wake Up Alone" and "Rehab" appeared on Mark Ronson's New York radio show on East Village Radio. These were some of the first new songs played on the radio since the release of "Pumps" and were both to appear on her second album. "Back to Black" went to number 1 on the UK charts, and entered at number seven in the USA, becoming the highest debut entry for an album by a British female solo artist, only to be outdone two weeks later by Joss Stone who debuted at number two with Introducing Joss Stone.
The album was released on 30 October 2006, a little more than three years after the release of Frank. In an interview, Winehouse explained "After Frank I didn’t write for 18 months but when I met Mark (Ronson) I pretty much wrote the album in six months — he was so inspiring." In contrast to her jazz-influenced former album, Winehouse's focus is described as "shifting to the girl groups of the Fifties and Sixties". Ronnie Spector stated that Winehouse is her favorite new singer. Dame Shirley Bassey in a recent interview told the press that she wants Amy Winehouse to sing the next James Bond theme. The eleven-track album was produced entirely by Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, with the production credits being split between them almost equally.
The first single released from the album on 23 October 2006 was the Ronson-produced "Rehab", a song about her past refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre after it was encouraged by her management company. She left the management company after this incident. On 22 October 2006, based solely on download sales, it entered the UK Singles Chart at #19 and when the CD single was released the following week, it climbed to #7. On 14 January 2007, the album rose one spot from #2 to reach the #1 position on the UK Album Chart. After the success of her BRIT award win her album again rose to #1 on 25 February. One of the songs on Winehouse's album titled "Me And Mr. Jones" is rumoured to be about rapper Nasir "Nas" Jones. This is based on references her lyrics, such as "Mr. Destiny, 9 and 14" Destiny is the name of his child with ex-girlfriend Carmen, and 14 September is a birthday both Winehouse and Nas share. In Winehouse's song "Rehab," she refers to "Ray" and "Mr. Hathaway." These are references to Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway.
In early October 2006, Winehouse's official website was re-launched with a new layout and clips of previously unreleased songs. She appeared in an interview with Jools Holland on BBC Radio 2 on 2 October 2006 and was a guest on Later with Jools Holland on 3 November 2006. Winehouse performed three headline gigs in September 2006 and in November 2006 performed another ten across the UK, including headlining one of the Little Noise Sessions charity concerts at the Union Chapel, Islington. She was scheduled to headline another fourteen gigs over February 2007 - March 2007. On 9 November 2006, Winehouse announced she had been approached by one of the producers of the James Bond movies to sing the main theme of Bond 22. The singer has denied rumors that she is to be the Bond Girl in the movie saying "I'm just not an actress".
The second single from the album was "You Know I'm No Good". The single was released on 8 January 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It made #18 in the UK singles chart and, in the same week's chart, "Rehab" climbed back up to #20. Back to Black was released in the United States in March 2007, with "You Know I'm No Good" as its lead single. The album entered at #7, the highest ever debut position for a British female artist at the time, until the release of Joss Stone's third studio album, Introducing Joss Stone which entered at #2 on the Billboard 200. A third UK single, "Back to Black", was released on 30 April 2007 and peaked at #25. In the summer of 2007, "You Know I'm No Good" was also incorporated into ads for AMC's new T.V. drama, Mad Men.
Rehab rose to the position of #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of 14 June, after a performance of it on the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. The following week it again rose one position to #9.
On 31 December 2006, Winehouse appeared on Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny and performed a cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" along with Paul Weller and Hollands' Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. She also performed Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man".
Amy performing at Eurockéennes 2007
At the BRIT Awards 2007, she performed her hit "Rehab". She won the Best British Female Artist award.
Winehouse's wardrobe on her recent UK tour was sponsored by the clothing label Gio-Goi, and it has recently been rumoured that she is to become the face of the label's 2007 Women's wear collection following in the footsteps of Pete Doherty who is the face of menswear.
Winehouse is set to perform at the 2007 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago on 5 August as well as the Virgin Music Festival held in Baltimore on 4 August 2007, and 8 September in Toronto.
The song "Rehab" won the Ivor Novello award for best contemporary song on 24 May 2007.
Winehouse performed at the June 2007 Glastonbury Festival in the UK.
Amy was scheduled to perform at V Festival 2007 on the Channel 4 stage on 18 and 19 August. Her manager has announced that she will not be performing at V Festival 2007 and has put all her tour commitments on hold until further notice.
Personal life
On 18 May 2007 Winehouse married Blake Fielder-Civil in an unannounced ceremony in Miami, Florida. Multiple press accounts that reported the wedding have suggested that Winehouse's relationship with Fielder-Civil was the inspiration for several of the songs on Back to Black.
On 14 August 2007 TMZ.com and the Daily Mirror reported that Winehouse and new husband Blake Fielder-Civil agreed to go to rehab after their respective fathers nearly came to blows over their heroin and cocaine addiction. The Vancouver Sun reported she stayed at the Causeway treatment centre in Essex, England, for five days. Winehouse's family is apparently up in arms about her whirlwind rehab stay, which was meant to last six to eight weeks. Her spokesperson said "Amy Winehouse is putting all her touring commitments for this month on hold until further notice in order to address her health issues". Later it was announced that her September North American tour has been postponed and plans were being made to reschedule it early in 2008. The spokesperson also remarked "Her family has requested that the media respect Amy’s privacy at this time. There will be no further comment", This follows an August 8 incident where Winehouse was admitted to University College Hospital in London after slipping into a coma after overdosing on several drugs. As reported by News of the World she smoked heroin, snorted cocaine, took ecstasy and the dissociative anesthetic ketamine, along with whiskey and vodka during a bar crawl in London. She told the paper "It was just crazy -- one of the most terrifying moments of my life," she said. "I just don't know what got into me." These developments occurred after months of speculation in the tabloids over alleged alcohol-induced behaviour. This included apparent intoxication during television appearances and concerts, cancelled appearances, heckling Bono, and cuts and scars on her arm.
In late August 2007, her father-in-law called for fans to boycott her performances and stop buying her music as a means of getting her to give up drugs.
On early morning hours August 23 the singer and her husband were spotted and photographed by the Daily Mail stumbling around streets of London badly bloodied and bruised. Guests at the Sanderson hotel reported hearing the sound of clattering furniture and screaming coming from the couple's £500-a-night suite around 11:00 PM the night before. At 2:30 AM Mrs Fielder-Civil was seen sprinting down the corridor to the lift, pursued by her badly bleeding husband. One guest who got into the lift to reception at the same time said they started shouting at each other. "Amy was in floods of tears. This guy was screaming at her. "She was cowering in the corner and I thought he was going to hit her. When the lift door opened, she took off across the lobby at a real pace". In a series of texts between the singer and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton the singer said "I was cutting myself after he found me in our room about to do drugs with a call girl and rightly said I wasn't good enough for him. I lost it and he saved my life" In a June 2007 interview with World Entertainment News Network she was quoted as saying "I'll beat up Blake when I'm drunk. I don't think I have ever bruised him, but I do have my way. If he says one thing I don't like then I'll chin him."
The Independent published an article about manic depression, in which it quotes Winehouse as stating that she is a clinically diagnosed manic depressive who refuses to take medication.
In September 2006, Winehouse was reported to have dropped three dress sizes because of comments made to her about her size. In an interview in The Daily Telegraph Magazine (16 September 2006), when asked if this was the cause she replied "No. No. No. I don't listen to anyone except my ... inner child anyway. If someone had said to me, Amy, lose a stone which they wouldn't - I don't think I would have listened anyway." In October, Winehouse admitted to have previously been affected by eating disorders. "A little bit of anorexia, a little bit of bulimia. I'm not totally OK now but I don't think any woman is and most men will agree."
Winehouse has a number of "old school" tattoos of naked women on her body. When asked about them, she was quoted as saying "I like pin-up girls. I’m more of a boy than a girl in that way. I’m not a lesbian, though — not before a sambuca anyway."
She said she would own a beauty salon once her singing schedule calms down.
Other media appearances
Discography
Albums
Singles
Awards and nominations
She was placed #1 on Spinner.com's Women Who Rock Right Now.
Supermodel Kate Moss is planning to write a song in tribute to her
Notes and references
Amy Winehouse on Rolling Stone magazine cover
Black
Sabbath - Ozzy
Osbourne Bob
Marley & Wailers East
Magazine - Eastbounre Elena
Paparizou - Eurovision Flipp's
- Pop
Funk collection Glade
alternative music festival Grant
Navy
Fireman Gunther
+ Sunshine Girls Jethro
Tull Live
Earth Concerts Max
Jasper - Mezzowave Myspace.com
- Networking Sting
- The Police Stock
Aitken Waterman SAW TOP
TEN - FORTY CHARTS
Vibes
From the Vine - Concert
06
VW
tour bus - Sunshine Girls
Wicked
New Year Party - Alps 07
X
Factor Battle
of Stars
Healthier alternative tastes for adventure capitalists
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