Amy Winehouse

Amy Jade Winehouse, better known as simply Amy Winehouse, was born in 1983 in London and had Jewish and Russian roots. 

She had an elder brother, 3 years older than she is. When Amy was 5 years old, her parents decided to divorce. All her family was interested in music, including her uncles, who were professionals at jazz and her grandmother, who was also a jazz singer.  

At the age of 10, Amy made up a rap band under the title “Sweet 'n' Sour”. In 1995 a promising girl entered the theatrical studio of Silvia Young, but later on was expelled for bad behavior. During her studying there, she managed to appear in the episode “The Fast Show”.  
The same year a young lady wrote her first songs in life. Another thing, which also happened to her for the first time was not so cool - she experimented with drugs. In a year, Amy started her work in a jazz band and her boyfriend helped her to sign a contract with EMI. Her first check Amy spent on “The Dap Kings” band, which accompanied her during her performances.  
Debut studio album saw the world in 2003 with 13 hits in it: “Stronger Than Me”, You Sent Me Flying”, “Know You Now”, “Fuck Me Pumps”, “In My Bed”, “Take the Box”, “Help Yourself”, etc. The album received positive acclaim from the critics and got 3 platinum certifications from the British Phonographic Industry. However, the artist herself was not fully satisfied with the album and admitted the label included some songs to it, which she was not happy with.  

The next album, “Back to Black”, was marked by the appearance of jazz motives and the influence of female pop groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Singles from the album appeared on the East Village Radio and the album itself took 7th place on the Billboard chart and was announced as a best-selling record of 2007. Single “Rehab” received several awards, including ``Ivor Novello” and was recognized as the best contemporary song the same year.  

At the same time, Amy Winehouse was not able to perform on the stage and canceled her concerts in the US and Great Britain, reporting about her bad health condition. There were also numerous photo facts of Amy, taking drugs and alcohol. Singer’s parents were deeply concerned and worried about her addiction and accused the paparazzi of making her life unbearable. A few months later “I Told You I Was Trouble” DVD was released with the concert recording and a documentary about Amy.  

Despite overcoming all the above mentioned troubles, Amy was desperately working on a vocal recording of a song “Valerie” from Mark Ronson’s solo album. “Island Records” studio in its turn warned Amy about their readiness to terminate the contract in case she would not cope with her addiction and other problems. Thus, she started her recovery and rehabilitation. Amy’s second album was a success: she got 5 Grammys in different nominations for it in 2008: Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and couple of others.  
In April, Amy Winehouse set up her work on the musical theme to the “Quantum of Solace” movie with Daniel Craig as a lead actor. Unfortunately, it failed to come true as far as Amy gave up the idea. 
In 2008 Amy Winehouse also performed in Russia. Not long ago after the concert, she was diagnosed with pulmonary emphysema and was hospitalized.  

Three years later, the star canceled her European tour because of the scandal concerning her performance in Belgrad, Serbia. 20 thousands of fans observed her for an hour on the stage but all in all did not hear her singing. Instead she welcomed the audience, behaved quite strange, talked with other musicians and left the stage as a result.  
In the middle of 2011, Amy Winehouse passed away in her apartments in London. There were different versions of her death: from a drug overdose and suicide to heart attack as a result of alcohol intoxication.  
A British star is also known for her generosity and charity work. She always felt pity for children and even prepared the documents to adopt an 11 years old girl, but did not make it because of her unexpected death. Amy also wanted to increase awareness about such dangerous illnesses as breast cancer and thus appeared naked on the Easy Living Magazine pages. Additionally, she was worried about climate change and joined a CD called “Classics” with such musicians as the Rolling Stones, the Killers in order to make people think over ecology, their habits and our planet’s future.