Amy Winehouse was born on September 14th 1983 to mother Janis Collins and Mitch Winehouse, in a small home in London's Southgate area and was brought up Jewish. Throughout her early life she was always heavily influenced by Jazz music, specifically as Amy had uncles who were Jazz musicians and always expressed her love for music in general.
Amy had a tough life which was heavily scrutinized in the public eye, throughout many bumps in her life, she was sadly pronounced dead on 23rd July, 2011. She was only aged 27 and immediately joined the 27's club alongside other famous celebrities such as Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Her death was a public tragedy and touched the whole world.
Here we will be exploring Amy's tragic life story, and what had been the main causes of her death in 2011.
Amy's Parents Separating
Amy and her brother Alex had a very close knit bond to their parents, which is why when Amy was just 9 years old, she found it very hard to overcome the fact that they were both to get a divorce and go their separate ways.
Amy never truly ever got over the divorce of her parents, in her song 'What it is about men' from her first album Frank, she she expresses how she felt about her parents divorce, and we hear the lyrics "Understand, once he was a family man, So surely I would never, ever go through it first hand, Emulate all the shit my mother hated, I can't help but demonstrate my Freudian fate."
Amy was extremely close to her grandmother Cynthia also, who encouraged Amy to get over her parents divorce and paid for Amy to attend a Theatre School nearby.
Bad Habits At A Young Age
It was at this time at theatre school, Amy began to develop into a young adult. Every teenager goes through some rebellious stages, but for Amy hers was next level for her age.
Amy was introduced to cannabis and drugs by other students studying at her school. Little did she know this was just the catalyst to her life long battle with drugs.
Amy also developed some very bad eating habits. Her mum, Janis, said: "When she was 15 she says 'I've found this really great diet, I eat what I want then I just bring it all back up'.
"My feeling was that this would pass. I told Mitch about it and he wasn't taking it seriously but she's basically describing bullimia."There was also suspicion at this point in her life, just aged 28, Amy was also suffering from an undiagnosed personality disorder, but Amy denied all of this and put it to the back of her mind.
Bad Moves
When Amy turned just 19 she was beginning to get noticed from many record deals, she signed with Island Records in 2002, in a reported £250,000 deal. During this time Amy immediately made the decision to move to Camden.
Camden was the ultimate hot spot for drugs and alcohol, and was a magnet to brit pop talent as many bands such as The Liberties resided here due to the hard drug and hard alcohol rock culture. This was one of the most dangerous places in the world for Amy, it fulfilled her need but also threatened her life.
Whilst in Camden Amy loved to party, her friend Zoe Griffin said: "She would drink out of a pint glass but it wasn't beer, I think it was spirits." Amy was known for her flat being the 'party flat.' She would invite many back to her flat after nights out, and most of the people invited were those who wanted trouble. Amy was hanging around with the wrong crowd.
The Start Of Amy's Love life
Amy met future husband Blake Fielder in 2005, and the pair quickly became obsessed with each other. Blake and Amy would be seen everywhere together and according to Amy's friends "Moved too quickly and gave each other no personal space."
Just months into Blake and Amy's relationship, friends and family began to raise many concerns not only about Amy's new relationship, but her health also.
The Decline Of Amy's health
By summer 2005, Amy was unhealthily stick thin and appeared to be exhausted. Amy was already facing issues with her weight and body image, but fame certainly did not help her situation. She was under public scrutiny now, and was constantly comparing herself to other young girls her age.
The the other and most obvious reason for Amy's weight loss could only have been one other thing- Drugs. Her relationship with Blake became very toxic and dependant on drugs and alcohol to keep the flame alive. In Amy's opinion- it was them against the world.
Amy Declines rehab
Concerns over Amy's health continued to grow, which is when her friends and family encouraged Amy to go to rehab, to which Amy hated the idea of and was adamant that she would not go and did not need help. She released her biggest hit song during hit song during this period of time- 'Rehab.'
Amy finally gave in weeks later, but said she would only go to rehab if her boyfriend Blake, was treated alongside her. Phsycologist Chip Summers was asked personally by Blake if this was possible, to which he declined as he thought it would defeat the purpose and they needed time apart. Blake and Amy came to the conclusion that they would find someone else who could treat them both.
Chip said "I wish I could have spoken to Amy on her own."
The death of amy's grandmother cynthia
Just as Amy thought her life could get no worse, the closest person in Amy's life, her grandmother Cynthia, tragically passed away during the time she was recording 'Back to Black.'
Amy was devastated and got her famous 1950's pin up woman tatooed on her arm as a tribute to her late grandmother. The one person Amy thought she could rely on during this time was boyfriend Blake, but Blake had other ideas, and ended the relationship with Amy just when she was at her lowest.
the peak of amy's career
Amy Winehouse was the name on every music listeners tounge after the release of her album 'Back to Black.' The album brought her fame like no other almost overnight, she was one of the biggest celebrities in the world. Amy won a Brit and 5 Grammy awards, she was in shock as she did not believe she had the talent that everyone was seeing, she continued to be her biggest enemy.
Just after, Blake came back into her life. The pair got married in Miami in 2007 and soon after Amy was back on the road that Blake had originally paved for her.
Public Scrutiny
With fame comes negativity, abuse and your face on every newspaper all over the world. Amy was not ready for this and was too fragile to handle the comments being thrown at her. She was like an animal, people would meet up outside her home and scream comments so belittling that no other person should have to hear.
Everywhere Amy looked she was being scrutinized, this caused not only her health to deterioate but also her relationship.
Addiction takes over
Everywhere Amy goes she is followed, she gets no privacy and the whole world can see how toxic her relationship with Blake really is, it was the hottest topic of the newspapers and people could not get Amy's name out of their mouths.
A photo soon emerges of both Amy and Blake, the couple were covered in blood and scratches, and had obviously been in a fight together after a row in the hotel room. Amy's feet were drenched in blood.
Soon after, Amy faces another public hurdle. A video emerges of Amy smoking crack cocaine. The public now were well aware of Amy's drug addiction, there was nowhere to hide for Amy.
CRISIS POINT FOR AMY
The video of Amy stunned and shocked her fans, many began to turn on her. The smoke and drugs was not only damaging Amy's reputation and health, but was also damaging her vocal chords too. Her hair began falling out and Amy was reaching crisis point.
Amy's relationship with Blake once again began to fall apart after their apartment was raided and Blake was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Blake was not long after jailed for 27 months for assaulting a bar owner. This was devestating to Amy as she was obsessed with Blake and spent every waking hour with him. Amy's career took another turn for the worst when she was headlining Glastonbury and was seen to repeatedly punch a member of the crowd, this was not a good time for Amy and her fans were all beginning to question themselves.
Not long after, Blake was released from prison and filed for a divorce with Amy. Amy began a new relationship with film director, Reg Travis. Her family were over the moon for her and she began to get that spark back that she had been missing. During this time she also recorded a song with legend Tony Bennett.
Not for long
Just as things were looking up for Amy, they came crashing back down again. Amy was booked to play at a festival in Belgrade as part of her european tour, her long awaited come back ended up being a complete disaster.
On the stage Amy is delerious and is seen stumbling all over the place, her once beautiful angel like voice, is now gone. The rest of the tour was then scrapped. Her friends questioned why Amy was even doing tours, she did not need the money. They believed she was being forced on to the stage.
Three weeks later, Amy took to the stage for the final time. She joins her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, on stage at the Roundhouse in Camden.
Amy Relapses
Amy soon after her last performance came to realize what she had lost- her love, army of fans, and most importantly, her voice. She then turned to drink and drugs once again, to try and fulfill the horrible hole of what she had lost.
Amy had one, final conversation with her body guard, Andrew Morris, before she went to bed on the evening of July 22, 2011.
He said: "She was showing me some clips on her laptop and she was singing and she said 'boy, I can sing' and I said 'damn right, you can sing.'
"She said 'if I could I would give it back just to walk down the street with no hassle, I would'.
Amy was found and pronounced dead the next morning from alcohol poisoning.
getting help
if you or someone you know is struggling with drug or alcohol misuse or addiction, contact call the Frank drugs helpline on 0300 123 6600. They can talk you through all your options.
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