Amy Winehouse might have sadly lost her heartbreaking battle with drug and alcohol addition this weekend, but the complicated singer's vibrant musical legacy is, at last, passionately honored after being overshadowed for years by her dark personal struggles.
Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her Camden, North London home around 4 p.m. BST (11 a.m. EDT) on Saturday, July 23. No cause has yet to be determined, although reports have widely circulated that the cause was a drug overdose. Winehouse also suffered from emphysema, a disease exacerbated by her hard drug use and smoking. Her last public appearance was onstage at her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield's iTunes Festival appearance at London's Roundhouse on July 20.
According to The Guardian, back in 2008, Winehouse's mother Janis said, with aching frankness: "I have known for a long time that my daughter has problems. We're watching her kill herself slowly. It's like watching a car crash – this person throwing these gifts away. I've already come to terms with her dead. I've steeled myself to ask her on what ground she wants to be buried, in which cemetery."
Many of Winehouse's collaborators on her two albums, 2003's Frank and 2006's Back To Black, her friends and admirers have offered thoughts and tributes, either via official statements or tweets. Here's a selection of a few:
Mark Ronson (produced Winehouse's Grammy-winning Back To Black): "She was my musical soulmate & like a sister to me. This is one of the saddest days of my life."
Sharon Jones, The Dap Kings (who backed Winehouse) and Daptone Records: "We are very sad to have lost Amy Winehouse today. She was one of a kind and we were fortunate to have had the chance to make music with her. She was always gracious and a pleasure to work with in the studio and on the road. She brought a lot of people joy with her voice and her irreverent personality. It is a tragedy that she was taken from us so soon when she had much more music to give."
Lily Allen: Its [sic] just beyond sad, there's nothing else to say. She was such a lost soul, may she rest in peace.
Hawley Arms Pub in Camden (one of Winehouse's favored haunts): ''We are shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Amy's death. Apart from her extraordinary musical talent, she was a special person with a good soul and this should not have happened.
Russell Brand, Winehouse's friend and a recovering addict himself, wrote a long, moving tribute to the singer on his site on Sunday which began: “When you love someone who suffers from the disease of addiction you await the phone call. There will be a phone call. The sincere hope is that the call will be from the addict themselves, telling you they’ve had enough, that they’re ready to stop, ready to try something new. Of course though, you fear the other call, the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it’s too late, she’s gone. Frustratingly it’s not a call you can ever make it must be received. It is impossible to intervene. I’ve known Amy Winehouse for years. When I first met her around Camden she was just some twit in a pink satin jacket shuffling round bars with mutual friends, most of whom were in cool Indie bands or peripheral Camden figures Withnail-ing their way through life on impotent charisma. Carl Barrat told me that 'Winehouse' (which I usually called her and got a kick out of cos it’s kind of funny to call a girl by her surname) was a jazz singer, which struck me as a bizarrely anomalous in that crowd. To me with my limited musical knowledge this information placed Amy beyond an invisible boundary of relevance; 'Jazz singer? She must be some kind of eccentric,' I thought. I chatted to her anyway though, she was after all, a girl, and she was sweet and peculiar but most of all vulnerable."
