Amy Winehouse

Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter from Southgate, North London. She was known for her deep contralo vocals eclectic mix of musical genres. Winehouse first gained recognition in 2003 as a fresh faced Jazz  singer, with the release of her critically aclaimed debut record Frank. Winehouse shot to worldwide success with the release of her 2006 follow up album, Back to Black, which saw her depart from the Jazz influence of her debut album, instead incorporating 1960's Soul and Doo-wop music styles with modern R&B production. Back to Black landed Winehouse 6 Grammy award nominations, with 5 wins, as well as 2 Ivor Novellos and a BRIT award. In 2011, Back to Black became the UK's best-selling record of the 21st century, at that point.

In her short career, Winehouse became equally notorious for her music as she did her self destructive lifestyle and doomed marriage. Despite being fiercely against the usage of hard drugs in her youth, Winehouse began to self destruct as her troubled life of crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol addiction fell into the public eye after the incarceration of her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, in late 2007. However, in 2008, Winehouse left the limelight and sought rehabilitation on the Carribean island of St. Lucia, in which she kicked her hard drug addiction. She returned to the United Kingdom in 2009, in which she divorced Fielder-Civil and presumably began to write her highly anticipated third album. Winehouse had planned to begin her musical return and comeback tour in 2011, but she relapsed and performed intoxicated on the first leg of the tour in Belgrade, Serbia. Winehouse was given as long as she needed to recover.

Amy Winehouse died on July 23, 2011 from alcohol poisoning.