Amy Winehouse Biography, Photos and Posters

Amy Winehouse

Biography

Born: September 14, 1983
City and Country of Origin: Enfield, Middlesex, England
Music Training: Sylvia Young Theatre School at 12;
Awards:
Top Recordings: "Stronger than Me," "Take the Box," "In My Bed," "You Sent Me Flying," "Pumps," "Help Yourself," "Rehab," "You Know I'm No Good," "Back to Black"
Amy Winehouse Biography: Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English jazz and soul singer and songwriter from Enfield, North London. Her debut album, Frank (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and she won an Ivor Novello award in 2004 for her debut single "Stronger than Me". In 2006, she released her second album, Back to Black. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist.

Winehouse was born into an English-Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians. She grew up in the suburb of Southgate, North London, and attended Ashmole School. At around age 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 aged 12 but was expelled at 13 for "not applying herself" and piercing her own nose. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon.

She grew up listening to a diverse range of music (from Salt 'n' Pepa to Sarah Vaughan) and received her first guitar aged 13.

After her friend, soul singer Tyler James, gave her demo tape to an A&R person, she was discovered and began singing professionally at age 16. She signed to her current record label, Island/Universal, under management company 19 Management.

Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released on October 20, 2003. It was produced mainly by Salaam Remi with many songs having jazz-influences and, apart from two covers, every song was co-written by Winehouse. The album received positive reviews with compliments over the "cool, critical gaze" in its (sometimes explicit) 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 sell platinum. 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 per cent behind the album" because of the inclusion of certain songs and mixes she disliked by her record label. 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."

Her second album. "Back to Black" went to number 1 on the UK charts, and recently made history on the US charts when it entered at number 7, becoming the highest debut for a British solo female, only to be outdone two weeks later by Joss Stone who debuted at number 2 with "Introducing Joss Stone." The first single released from the album on October 23, 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.

Rumors about her drinking problem have persisted through the years. It has reached the point where she has drawn ridicule from some of the people she has worked with.

Source Wikipedia

Search Site by Artist:

Create search engine for website.