Amy Winehouse

Fun Facts: Before her career took off, Amy worked as a "showbiz journalist" for the World Entertainment News Network in addition to singing with a jazz band. Her mother is also a pharmacist . . .

Claim to Fame: Amy rose to international success with her second album “Back to Black.” This was the biggest selling UK album of 2007. At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Amy won 5 awards, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year (Rehab) and Record of the Year (Rehab). 

Amy Jade Winehouse is an English singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including R&B, soul, jazz, rock & roll, and ska.

Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank was commercially and critically successful in her native Britain. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British singer to win five Grammys, including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She has won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song for "Stronger Than Me", one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for "Rehab", and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Love Is a Losing Game", among other prestigious distinctions.

Winehouse has been credited as being an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music.

Winehouse has received media attention apart from her singing. Her distinctive style has been the muse for fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld. The singer's problems with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as self-destructive behaviour, have become regular tabloid news since 2007. She and her former husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were plagued by legal troubles that left him serving prison time. In 2008, Winehouse faced a series of health complications that threatened both her career and her life.


Winehouse was born in the Southgate area of Enfield, London to a Jewish family who shared her love of jazz music. She was raised in a family of four: her father Mitchell, her mother Janis, and her older brother Alex. Mitchell would constantly sing around the house, often singing Frank Sinatra to young Amy, who also took to a constant habit of singing to the point that teachers found it difficult keeping her quiet in class.

At the age of nine, her grandmother, Cynthia, suggested she attend the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School for further training. At age ten, Winehouse founded a short-lived rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour with childhood friend Juliette Ashby. She stayed at the Earnshaw school for four years before seeking full time training at Sylvia Young Theatre School, but was allegedly expelled at fourteen for "not applying herself" and for piercing her nose. With other children from the Sylvia Young School, she appeared in an episode of The Fast Show in 1997. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon and attended Southgate School and Ashmole School.

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