Jewogle - Amy Jade Winehouse (Born: September 14, 1983)

Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English soul, jazz, and R&B singer and songwriter.

Winehouse's debut album, Frank (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations including the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Album of the Year, 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 twice, among other prestigious distinctions.

Winehouse has created media buzz apart from her singing. Her unique style, most notably her former signature beehive hairstyle, has spawned imitators and been the muse for fashion designers, most notably Karl Lagerfeld. The singer's (and her husband's) struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as self-destructive behaviour, became regular tabloid news in 2007. They have also been plagued by legal troubles that have led to the cancellation of several tour dates. Winehouse was recently written of in the February 4 edition of [Time Magazine], which detailed some of the above stated legal and publicity issues.

Career

After toying with her brother's guitar, she received her first guitar when she was thirteen, and began writing music a year later. It was around this time that she dropped out of school, and first started experimenting with drugs. She began working soon after, including as a "showbiz journalist" for the World Entertainment News Network in addition to singing with a jazz band. Her sometime boyfriend, soul singer Tyler James, sent her demo tape to an A&R person. The tapes led to her signing with record label Island/Universal under Simon Fuller's company 19 Management, and to a publishing deal with EMI. With her first cheque, she moved out with Ashby.

Performing at the Bowery Ballroom, New York CityWinehouse hired New York singer Sharon Jones's longtime band, the Dap-Kings to back her up in the studio and on tour, giving the group its first real taste of the limelight.

Major label success
Amy Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released on 20 October 2003. It was produced mainly by Salaam Remi; many songs had jazz-influences and, apart from two covers, every song was co-written by Winehouse. The album received positive reviews with compliments over the "cool, critical gaze" in its lyrics and brought comparisons of her voice to Sarah Vaughan, Macy Gray and others.

The album entered the upper levels of the UK album chart in 2004 when it was nominated for BRIT Awards in the categories of "British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". It went on to achieve platinum sales. Later in 2004, she won the Ivor Novello songwriting Award for "Best Contemporary Song" with her contribution to the first single, "Stronger Than Me" (alongside Salaam Remi). The album also made the short list for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. In the same year, she performed at the Glastonbury festival, on the Jazzworld stage, and at the V Festival.

After the release of the album, Winehouse commented that she was "only 80 percent behind [the] album" because of the inclusion by her record label of certain songs and mixes she disliked. Upon the release of her second album, she stated "I can’t even listen to Frank any more — in fact, I’ve never been able to. I like playing the tracks live because that’s different, but listening to them is another story." She later clarified this, saying: "I listen to it differently now. I am still really proud of it, I still think it's a great album. But, with hindsight, there are some things I would have done differently... Just because I would do things a bit differently now doesn't mean I don't like what's on that album."

International success
In contrast to her jazz-influenced former album, Winehouse's focus shifted to the girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s. In an interview, Winehouse explained, "After Frank I didn’t write for 18 months but when I met Mark [Ronson] I pretty much wrote the album in six months—he was so inspiring." In early 2006, Winehouse's demonstration tracks such as "Wake Up Alone" and "Rehab" appeared on Mark Ronson's New York radio show on East Village Radio. These were some of the first new songs played on the radio after the release of "Pumps" and both were slated to appear on her second album. The eleven-track album was produced entirely by Salaam Remi and Ronson, with the production credits being split between them almost equally. Promotion of Back to Black soon began, and in early October 2006 Winehouse's official website was re-launched with a new layout and clips of previously unreleased songs.

Back to Black was released in the UK on October 30, 2006. It went to number one on the UK Albums Chart numerous times, and entered at number seven on the Billboard 200 in the United States. This was the highest debut entry for an album by a British female solo artist, only to be outdone two weeks later by Joss Stone, who debuted at number two with Introducing Joss Stone. By 25 October the album was approaching 5X platinum in the UK, making it the best-selling album of 2007 and the top iTunes album in the UK in 2007.

The album spawned a number of singles. The first single released from the album on 23 October 2006 was the Ronson-produced "Rehab". The song was a #7 single in the UK, and won the Ivor Novello award for best contemporary song on May 24, 2007. "Rehab" peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of June 21, over a week after a performance of it on the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. Time magazine named "Rehab" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #1. Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised Winehouse for her confidence, opining, “What she is is mouthy, funny, sultry, and quite possibly crazy” and, "It's impossible not to be seduced by her originality. Combine it with production by Mark Ronson that references four decades worth of soul music without once ripping it off, and you've got the best song of 2007."

The album's second single, "You Know I'm No Good" was released on 8 January 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It ultimately reached #18 on the UK singles chart. Back to Black was released in the United States in March 2007, with "You Know I'm No Good" as its lead single. The title track, "Back to Black", was released in the UK on 30 April 2007 and peaked at #25. A deluxe edition of Back to Black was also released on November 5, 2007 in the UK. The bonus disc features B-sides, rare, and live tracks, as well as "Valerie". Winehouse's debut DVD I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London was released the same day in the U.K. and November 13 in the U.S. It includes a live set recorded at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire and a 50-minute documentary charting the singers career over the previous four years. On 10 December 2007, the final single from Back to Black, "Love Is a Losing Game", was released in the United Kingdom and US.

On 20 November 2007, Frank was released in the United States to positive reviews. The album debuted at #61 on the Billboard 200 charts.

In addition to her own album, other artists have released her collaborations as singles. Winehouse was a vocalist on the song "Valerie" on Ronson's solo album Version. The song peaked at #2 in the UK, upon its October single release. As of 26 November the song had been in the top 5 for seven weeks {old fact}. The song was nominated for a 2008 Brit Award for "Best British Single". Her work with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena, "B Boy Baby," was released on 17 December 2007. It will serve as the fourth single from Buena's solo debut album Real Girl.

Performing at Eurockéennes 2007By the year's end, Winehouse had garnered much praise and distinction. The singer earned six 2008 Grammy Award nominations related to Back to Black. The album itself is up for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. "Rehab" was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Performance. The singer herself was nominated for Best New Artist. Producer Mark Ronson's work on the album earned him a nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Through her publicist, the singer agreed to perform at the awards ceremony on February 10. Reports indicate the singer is planning to do a Soul and Motown medley, and may perform a duet with some American singers, particularly Kanye West. Ronson says he intends to play with Winehouse at the awards show. The nominations, announced in early December, are credited with bumping up the sales of "Back to Black" up by 48 percent in the United States, where the re-rose to the number 82 chart position. Winehouse was the fifth most eBayed star in 2007 attracting 16,052 sales including dozens of beehive wigs. In all, she sold a total of 497,310 singles (the 8th best-selling singles artist of the year) and 2,196,362 albums (the top-selling albums artist) in her native UK during the year.

As of 13 January of this year, "Back to Black" held the number one position on Billboards Pan European charts for the third straight week.

Possible future recordings
Pete Doherty said that the Babyshambles are collaborating with the singer on a song titled "You Hurt The Ones You Love".

Prince has said he would like Winehouse to fly to his Minnesota home to work on a musical collaboration after Christmas. Previously, Prince has said that he was a “big fan” of the singer prompting her to reply: “I’m honoured. I’m a massive fan. I’d love to work with him." George Michael has written a song in which he wants to duet with the singer. Michael said "Amy is the best female vocalist I have ever heard in my entire career, as well as one of the best writers."

According to Ronson, the singer is writing songs and he imagines they will get in the studio in 2008. Based on her demos, he foresees a "holiday record with Christmas songs on one side and Hanukkah songs on the other."

Winehouse is also said to be working with Missy Elliott and hip-hop producer Timbaland.

Following the release of the box office hit, the 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale, there were rumous that Winehouse had been approached to sing the theme tune to the film's sequel, Quantum of Solace (film).

The singer plans to travel to Jamaica to work with Damian Marley son of reggae legend Bob Marley.