AMY WINEHOUSE(1983 - 2011)

Cynthia was born in London in 1983. This controversial composer and soul singer was one of the greatest revelations of the recent years. She was gifted with prodigious vocal qualities that led her to a dizzy success.

In February 2008 Amy Winehouse was the big winner of the Grammy Awards getting five of six prizes to those that she was nominee for the second album

of her career, “Black to Black”, one of the best albums of the decade.

Her parents, Mitch and Janis, were fans of soul and jazz. Soon, It was exposed that they had no authority to deal with the bad temper of their daughter; a rebellious child that required constant attention. The only person who seemed to have some power over the girl was his paternal grandmother.

Amy's head had a single obsession: to succeed as a singer, and since she was ten years old, she tried to form a rap duo in the style of the later Salt'n'Pepa. In 1995, she signed up in a drama school Sylvia Young, from which she was expelled the following year for having a pierced nose. But with the obstinacy of Amy, she became an

intuitive singer who gained experience on stage working as a vocalist of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

At the age of sixteen, her then-boyfriend, also a singer Tyler James, sent to a manager called Nick Godwyn a demo of Amy. Godwyn invited her to an audition, and when he saw her he knew he had gold in his hands. "It was incredible. He knew the old school and hip-hop. It was plump, had strength and unique style." A style that should be added; he knew her cockney accent, conspicuous tattoos and a moving provocatively in public.

Under the tutelage of his new manager, Amy Winehouse went to Miami to meet the producer Salaam Remi, an authority on rhythm and blues. Immediately, she was hired by the record company. Amy's talent allowed her to finish her debut in record time, given that almost never kept out of tune and time with precision, so it was not necessary to do many takes for each subject.

Frank (titled in honor of Sinatra) was Winehouse's first album. Appeared in 2003, was an exceptional success platinum. She was nominated for the Mercury Music Awards and she won an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 with single “Stronger than me”.

Many people say it was Pete Doherty, lead singer of The Libertines and partner of Kate Moss, who served her as guide for the most dangerous places in Camden. In those years, Amy had free access to drugs and alcohol. She began a romance with the troublemaker Blake Fielder. "I need to have troubles for feeling my creative force," said Amy about it.

Alternating periods of anorexia and bulimia, drinking every night and going without stopping, Amy seemed to feed on their own misfortune to get ahead. While her still manager, Nick Godwyn alerted the singer's parents about the danger of her path, she was not away from her messy lifestyle. Amy's response was a fierce refusal to be helped.

In 2006, she returned to the studio with a look quite different from three years ago, six sizes smaller and visibly fatigued face. Paradoxically, her talent and charisma seemed to have grown.

The album Black to black, produced by Mark Ronson won triple platinum within weeks of its appearance, made

according to the most severe criticism and the public. Amy shouted in her best record, ten songs written by herself. In the lyrics she reflected her cynical view of relationships and her particular immersion in the underworld of drugs and alcohol. In the single Rehab, she made clear that it would not be easily redirecting the path of temperance: "They try to go to

rehab, but I say 'no, no, no'." Or: "I know that I will lose

my boy, / so I have always a bottle close." It was not the best example for the millions of teenagers who soon came to buy her music.

That could have been an excellent year for redemption but it was not such a thing. The death of his beloved grandmother was a premonition. Although a new tattoo that said "Blake" adorned his chest, Alex Claire held for nine months, the heart of the singer, in addition, the success of Back to Black was a double-edged sword. Amy, who until then could keep their excesses with relative discretion, became the overnight in a face whose progressive degradation many paparazzi constantly portrayed. In consequence it began her dramatic history of cancellations and rudeness.

In January 2007 she appeared completely drunk on stage at a gay Party and she vomited at the end of the first theme. In May of that same year she married Blake in Miami. In November she was awarded the Artist Choice at the MTV Europe Music Awards. This success did not seem to awake the enthusiasm of the singer, whose only words to those attending the gala was a terse "thanks”.

The year 2008 seemed to start well for Amy. The Grammy ceremony was another triumphant tour of London, who, however, was unable to attend the live show because her visa was denied. Amy won five of the six awards they postulated her: best pop vocal album, best female vocal performance, best new artist, best song of the Year (Rehab) and best album. But in July she had to be admitted to a hospital, people said that because of pulmonary emphysema, a disease that would

end the career of any singer. Although her father denied such news, the pictures taken by reporters showed a completely deteriorated Amy.

In the summer concerts of touring Rock in Rio show, the public could see a diminished dramatically Amy in their vocal abilities. She was static on the stage. She completed its annual commitments as she could, after canceling concerts by her agency; she had to pay large amounts in compensation. Just turned twenty-five years, it was said that the British was immersed in the composition of which would be her third album. In the interviews she said she was excited by the upcoming release of her husband, with whom she hoped "to have five children."

But neither the children nor the third album had ever arrived. With a deteriorated relationship with Blake, Amy Winehouse introduced in 2009 the divorce and she went rolling down the rise of alcohol and drugs, starring in one scandal after another. In June 2009 she was accused for assaulting a fan; in August 2010, her behavior in a ceremony officiated by inauguration king of the Zulus was shameful, the paparazzi showed press photos of her being drunk. In 2011, a month before her death, completely drugged, she gave a concert in Belgrade, and it was an embarrassing spectacle that forced the cancellation of the rest of the functions. On July 23, 2011 she was found dead in her apartment in the London Borough of Camden. Like other music legends (Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin), she was 27.