Listen to Amy Winehouse on Batanga

Amy Jade Winehouse is an English 5-time Grammy Award-winning jazz/soul singer and songwriter. 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 from her debut album Frank. In 2006, she released her second album, Back To Black produced by Mark Ronson with musical backing from New York based retro soul group the dap-kings.

On 14th February 2007, she won a Brit award for Best British Female Solo Artist. In 2007 Back to Black reached #6 on the Billboard 200 Album chart in the US, selling over 51000 copies in its first week. Back to Black has now entered the top ten biggest selling albums of the 21st century, selling over 2.5 million copies in the UK since its release.

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 at age 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 at age 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.

Despite much adverse publicity due to substance abuse & legal issues, on February 10 2008, Amy Winehouse won five out of the six Grammy categories she was up for. The awards were as following: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Rehab, Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album for Back To Black, losing the Best Album Of The Year, which was won by Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters.

She performed You Know I’m No Good and Rehab for the Grammy awards ceremony from London via satellite due to the fact that she was initially denied an entry visa into the United States and it was uncertain if she would be able to clear up the issues before the show. While Winehouse was granted a visa, she remained in London for her performance and acceptance of her Grammy for Record of the Year for Rehab.