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Amy Winehouse Biography

In a cafe there could be jazz. As the cars go by, hip hop beats and basslines. Some old reggae booming from the neighbourhood vinyl shop. Home, and your noisy flat mate's blaring TV on the R'n'B channel.

Born and raised in North London, Amy Winehouse spent her teenage years balancing school and boyfriends with hours locked in her bedroom, ears glued to classic song chord changes. Her voice, however was clearly living a secret life, staying out, getting high, breaking down, going to prison and violating parole by leaving the country with a gun toting maniac gangster. At least it sounds that way.

She has the vocal prodigy bit covered. If words have already worn themselves out trying to describe the horny, sleazy, salty spiritual, worldly wise, late night, tired of bullshit, downtown, flirty, velvet resonance that makes for a great soul-jazz singer they're going to fall apart entirely over Amy. But she's not the kind of girl to accept the gift of vocal skills, sit back and replicate what others have done before her. Proceeding as if it was the most natural thing in the world she has taken her love of jazz and soul and added a seriously fresh perspective.

She might sound like a 40s jazz singer, but she's using forefront beats and lyrics- she's letting her voice go where its meant to go. Her style is not for the candlelit basement. It's out there living in the real world of Gucci bags, Diesel underwear, high heels, breast implants, weed after school, cheating airhead honeys and runaway crushes. Forget about torch themes from yesteryear.

"I wasn't there, so I can't write that," says Amy. "I'm young, man, and I'm a city girl. I can only write about what I've gone through. To me there's no point in doing a song unless it's a challenge in every area. I don't tend to do anything unless it's a challenge."

Carole King and James Taylor made their presence felt on the family stereo, but Amy was more drawn to her dad's jazzier taste. Under her father's tutelage, she picked up serious exposure to Sarah Vaughn and Dinah Washington ("my dad always claimed he discovered her!"). The classic song 'standards' she'd known at stage school sounded stiff compared to the jazz versions. Moving through Ella to Dinah she felt her way forward though the old greats. Ella was "technically faultless" but Dinah "could do jazz, and then she could knock the shit out of a blues... when she was 12 she was directing the church choir!

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Related links:

1. Buy Frank CD Album
2. In My Bed / You Sent Me Flying