At 20 years old, Amy burst onto the scenes in 2003 with her first critically acclaimed album Frank, which sold in excess of 600,000 copies and was nominated for a Mercury prize.
Frank is a beautiful soulful/R&B album, which touches on the trials and tribulations of relationships in a very open way – hence the album title. One of the most memorable songs from this album is called 'stronger than me' which Amy sings about being with someone who wouldn’t take a leading 'man's role' within the relationship, and therefore she felt that she was supporting him, where it should be the other way around in her eyes. Amy sings this song with so much passion in her voice that as a listener, you really do feel what she is vocally expressing. Although not hugely successful in the British charts, the song went on to win Ivor Novello award for ‘best contemporary song musically & lyrically’ in 2004.
Her second Album Black To Black was released in 2006 and had a more grown up feel to it. Amy took influence from Rock, Ska and Soul, and then combined it to make some of the most recognised songs from the Album. The Album sold over two million copies and had won five Grammy awards. There are several memorable songs from this album, for example ‘Rehab’ and ‘Back to Black’, however, one of the biggest 'cross over' songs for Amy was ‘Valerie’. If anyone had not heard of Amy Winehouse before that song was aired; they certainly did by now.
Valerie was a song which was first sang by the English Indie rock group The Zutons. They had a fair amount of success with their version of the song, but nothing to the scale that Amy had. Thanks to Amy and Mark Ronson, people wanted to hear the original song again to compare the two, which briefly put the Zoutons back in the spotlight again.
Although Amy was in the press for the majority of times about her personal life, not too much was mentioned about the good that she did. Amy supported breast cancer awareness charities throughout her career and even posed nude for a magazine that supporting the campaign. She also donated her song 'Back to Black' to the Global Fund's 'Born HIV Free campaign, where she allowed her song to be used as a soundtrack to a film which was in aid of raising awareness of babies being born with HIV.
Sadly, on the 23rd of July 2011 at the age of just 27, Amy had passed away and Britain had lost one if their brightest stars.
Love or loath her, you cannot deny the impact that Amy Winehouse has had on British music. Her distinct singing voice, talent and individual look made her stand out from the crowd.
RIP Amy Winehouse, gone but never forgotten.
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