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Offline Bitter

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Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« on: July 23, 2011, 11:26:24 AM »
Police: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London

By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 23, 1:20 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/police-singer-amy-winehouse-found-dead-at-her-home-in-london/2011/07/23/gIQA7jyFVI_story.html


LONDON — Amy Winehouse, the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, was found dead Saturday in her London home, police said. She was 27.

Winehouse shot to fame with the album “Back to Black,” whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse — with her black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos — one of music’s most recognizable stars.

Police confirmed that a 27-year-old female was pronounced dead at the home in Camden Square northern London; the cause of death was not immediately known. London Ambulance Services said Winehouse had died before the two ambulance crews it sent arrived at the scene.

An ambulance could be seen parked beneath the trees outside her London home, and the whole street was cordoned off by police tape. Officers kept onlookers away from the scene.

Last month, Winehouse canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Booed and jeered off stage, she flew home and her management said she would take time off to recover.

“I didn’t go out looking to be famous,” Winehouse told the Associated Press when “Back to Black” was released. “I’m just a musician.”

But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame, and by Winehouse’s demons. Tabloids lapped up the erratic stage appearances, drunken fights, stints in hospital and rehab clinics. Performances became shambling, stumbling train wrecks, watched around the world on the Internet.

Born in 1983 to taxi driver Mitch Winehouse and his pharmacist wife Janis, Winehouse grew up in the north London suburbs, and was set on a showbiz career from an early age. When she was 10, she and a friend formed a rap group, Sweet ‘n’ Sour — Winehouse was Sour — that she later described as “the little white Jewish Salt ‘n’ Pepa.”

She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, a factory for British music and acting moppets, later went to the Brit School, a performing arts academy in the “Fame” mold, and was originally signed to “Pop Idol” svengali Simon Fuller’s 19 Management.

But Winehouse was never a packaged teen star, and always resisted being pigeonholed.

Her jazz-influenced 2003 debut album, “Frank,” was critically praised and sold well in Britain. It earned Winehouse an Ivor Novello songwriting award, two Brit nominations and a spot on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize.

But Winehouse soon expressed dissatisfaction with the disc, saying she was “only 80 percent behind” the album.

“Frank” was followed by a slump during which Winehouse broke up with her boyfriend, suffered a long period of writer’s block and, she later said, smoked a lot of marijuana.

“I had writer’s block for so long,” she said in 2007. “And as a writer, your self-worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote. .. I used to think, ‘What happened to me?’

“At one point it had been two years since the last record and (the record company) actually said to me, ‘Do you even want to make another record?’ I was like, ‘I swear it’s coming.’ I said to them, ‘Once I start writing I will write and write and write. But I just have to start it.’”

The album she eventually produced was a sensation.

Released in Britain in the fall of 2006, “Back to Black” brought Winehouse global fame. Working with producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi and soul-funk group the Dap-Kings, Winehouse fused soul, jazz, doo-wop and, above all, a love of the girl-groups of the early 1960s with lyrical tales of romantic obsession and emotional excess.

“Back to Black” was released in the United States in March 2007 and went on to win five Grammy awards, including song and record of the year for “Rehab.”

Music critic John Aizlewood attributed her trans-Atlantic success to a fantastic voice and a genuinely original sound.

“A lot of British bands fail in America because they give America something Americans do better — that’s why most British hip-hop has failed,” he said. “But they won’t have come across anything quite like Amy Winehouse.”

Winehouse’s rise was helped by her distinctive look — black beehive of hair, thickly lined cat eyes, girly tattoos — and her tart tongue.

She was famously blunt in her assessment of her peers, once describing Dido’s sound as “background music — the background to death” and saying of pop princess Kylie Minogue, “she’s not an artist ... she’s a pony.”

The songs on “Black to Black” detailed breakups and breakdowns with a similar frankness. Lyrically, as in life, Winehouse wore her heart on her sleeve.

“I listen to a lot of ‘60s music, but society is different now,” Winehouse said in 2007. “I’m a young woman and I’m going to write about what I know.”

Even then, Winehouse’s performances were sometimes shambolic, and she admitted she is “a terrible drunk.”

Increasingly, her personal life began to overshadow her career.

She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication. Soon accounts of her erratic behavior, canceled concerts and drink- and drug-fueled nights began to multiply.

Photographs caught her unsteady on her feet or vacant-eyed, and she appeared unhealthily thin, with scabs on her face and marks on her arms.

There were embarrassing videos released to the world on the Internet. One showed an addled Winehouse and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty playing with newborn mice. Another, for which Winehouse apologized, showed her singing a racist ditty to the tune of a children’s song.

Winehouse’s managers went to increasingly desperate lengths to keep the wayward star on the straight and narrow.

Though she was often reported to be working on new material, fans got tired of waiting for the much-promised followup to “Back to Black.”

Occasional bits of recording saw the light of day. Her rendition of The Zutons’ ”Valerie” was a highlight of producer Mark Ronson’s 2007 album “Version,” and she recorded the pop classic “It’s My Party” for the 2010 Quincy Jones album “Q: Soul Bossa Nostra.”

But other recording projects with Ronson, one of the architects of the success of “Back to Black,” came to nothing.

She also had run-ins with the law. In April 2008, Winehouse was cautioned by police for assault after she slapped a man during a raucous night out.

The same year she was investigated by police, although not charged, after a tabloid newspaper published a video that appeared to show her smoking crack cocaine.

In 2010, Winehouse pleaded guilty to assaulting a theater manager who asked her to leave a family Christmas show because she’d had too much to drink. She was given a fine and a warning to stay out of trouble by a judge who praised her for trying to clean up her act.

In May 2007 in Miami, she married music industry hanger-on Blake Fielder-Civil, but the honeymoon was brief. That November, Fielder-Civil was arrested for an attack on a pub manager the year before. Fielder-Civil later pleaded guilty to assaulting barman James King and then offering him 200,000 pounds (US$400,000) to keep quiet about it.

Winehouse stood by “my Blake” throughout his trial, often blowing kisses at him from the court’s public gallery and wearing a heart-shaped pin labeled “Blake” in her hair at concerts. But British newspapers reported extramarital affairs while Fielder-Civil was behind bars.

They divorced in 2009.

Winehouse’s health often appeared fragile. In June 2008 and again in April 2010, she was taken to hospital and treated for injuries after fainting and falling at home.

Her father said she had developed the lung disease emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack, although her spokeswoman later said Winehouse only had “early signs of what could lead to emphysema.”

She left the hospital to perform at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday concert in Hyde Park in June 2008, and at the Glastonbury festival the next day, where she received a rousing reception but scuffled with a member of the crowd. Then it was back to a London clinic for treatment, continuing the cycle of music, excess and recuperation that marked her career.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Offline Blue

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2011, 12:34:51 PM »
RIP Amy

Offline Michael-j

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2011, 12:40:32 PM »
Such a tremendous waste of talent. Can't really say I'm surprised though, given her well documented history of drug abuse. RIP Mrs. Winehouse.

Offline Bakes

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2011, 01:21:44 PM »
Sometimes the demons we battle are literally larger than life... RIP.

Offline grimm01

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2011, 02:50:37 PM »
Sad to say it was only a matter of time.

RIP

Offline weary1969

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2011, 03:27:21 PM »
Sad to say it was only a matter of time.

RIP

ENTTTTTTTTT
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

Offline weary1969

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2011, 04:48:53 PM »
Fans stunned by her sudden death LOUDDDDDDDDDDDDD STEUPSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

Offline che

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2011, 05:07:39 PM »
R.I.P Amy.

Offline Jumbie

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2011, 06:06:14 PM »

Offline TriniCana

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2011, 07:49:35 PM »
SMH!

Saw her performed at St Lucia Jazz festival back in 2009. The first 15 mins of her performance I was truly amazed with her voice and her vocal range. Actually forgot about her demons and how scantly clad missy was. But then like one demon kick ein and missy decided to moon the crowd (either G-string or nothing) while picking up the mic that fell from her hand. 2 mins after that, madam said 'love you st lucyia' and walk off dey stage Note dey ban' still playing eh!!

I'm not surprised, but there's a sad feeling that MAYBE the people surrounding her could have jack her ass up to rehab.....like for the 3rd time. But still ahh boy, a talent gone!

Amy girl, the white puff in front of you is really a cloud....this time. RIP!


Offline weary1969

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2011, 07:51:35 PM »
I read bout d St. Lucia episode Trini u was dey in d flesh.
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

Offline TriniCana

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2011, 08:58:43 PM »
I read bout d St. Lucia episode Trini u was dey in d flesh.

Most present!! Rain pelting, soaked from head to toe and then came Amy!!!  :-\
Girl I only missed 4 St Lucia jazz festivals in meh life time.  This year made it 4.

Carnival real early nex' year...tank gawd!


Offline kicker

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2011, 03:51:59 PM »
Sad- another bold talent gone too soon...

RIP
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Offline warmonga

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2011, 09:17:32 PM »
one less facking crack head..

war
Black Lives Matter..

Offline Dutty

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2011, 07:49:50 AM »
one less facking crack head..

war

lol,, ...war if is 1 ting, yuh consistent
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Offline weary1969

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Re: Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her home in London
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2011, 09:46:04 AM »
By Jen Odell

Despite reports that Amy Winehouse may have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs before she was found dead on Saturday, police found neither drugs nor drug paraphernalia anywhere in her London home, according to People. The body of the 27-year-old "Rehab" singer was discovered by a security guard around 4 p.m. on Saturday, at which time she may have been dead for six hours, the magazine reports.

Chris Goodman, a friend and spokesperson for Winehouse, later said that people close to her were still confused about the details of her death.

"She was in her bedroom after saying she wanted to sleep, and when he went to wake her he found she wasn't breathing," Goodman told TMZ. “He called the emergency services straight away. He was very shocked. At this stage no one knows how she died. She died alone in bed."

Winehouse had reportedly been under the care of a physician as recently as Friday, and was receiving regular check-ups due to her "fragile health."

"The doctor was happy with her condition," a source told British newspaper the Sun. "When he left on Friday night he had no concerns. Less than 24 hours later she was found dead." An autopsy has been scheduled for Monday in London. If a toxicology test is conducted, the results could take weeks to be made public.

In the meantime, the singer's parents arrived outside her home Monday, where they stood by a fan-erected memorial shrine to mourn their loss. "I can't tell you what this means to us. It really is making this a lot easier for us," her father, Mitch Winehouse, told Us Magazine upon seeing how many fans had flocked to his daughter's home. "We're devastated and I'm speechless, but thanks for coming."
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

 

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