Amy Winehouse Dies Drug-haunted British pop diva was 27

Terence McArdle JULY 24, 2011

Amy Winehouse, the Grammy Award-winning pop singer- whose compositions reflected — and ultimately were overshadowed by — a turbulent personal life and struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, was found dead 23 July 2011 at her apartment in London. She was 27.

Amy Winehouse's hit songs included Rehab, Valerie, Tears Dry on Their Own and .

The British-born performer's train-wreck-style public behaviour often threatened to eclipse her talent. Although she received high-profile engagements, such as Nelson Mandela's 90th-birthday concert at London's Hyde Park in 2008, she routinely cancelled or missed appearances, whether because of bad health or bad manners.

In June 2011, Ms. Winehouse cancelled a tour after she shouted "Hello, Athens!" to an audience of 20,000 in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Backup singers had to sing her songs and she was ultimately booed off the stage.

Ms. Winehouse said living dangerously generated her creativity, and she was often photographed half- dressed and wild-eyed. The English tabloids reported that she had suffered brain damage from excessive use of drugs and alcohol.

"It sounds like such a wank thing to say," Ms. Winehouse once commented, "but I need to get some headaches going to write about."

Her reckless life often called to mind the doomed rock stars of earlier generations, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain — all of whom also died at the age of 27. She had a fondness for jazz vocals and 1960s pop, but she roughed up the style to include hip-hop slang and an infusion of profanity. Her music often focused on drinking, drug-taking and chronic infidelity.

Her song Rehab mirrored her life through its defiant lyrics: "They tried to make me go to rehab / I said no, no, no." The bouncy song, styled after the early sound and 1960s girl groups, became a hit in 2007.

Amid the chaos and turmoil of her personal life, Ms. Winehouse won five Grammy Awards in 2008, including best new artist. She also won for song of the year and best female pop vocal performance for Rehab, as well as for record of the year and best pop vocal album for Back to Black.

She was supported by a first-rate production team in her recordings, but she did not always appear first-rate in live performances. A New York Times music reviewer wrote of her May 2007 appearance at Manhattan's Highline Ballroom, "Her voice glints with possibility: tart, smoky, ready to flirt or sob, and capable of jazzy timing. What she doesn't have, and may not want, is the kind of focus older singers brought to their songs," he wrote, adding that her performance "switched between confession and indifference."

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