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Amy's rap-group
At the age of 10, Amy was drawn to listen to American R&B abd hip-hop acts, including TLC and Salt-N-Pepa, and she founded a short-lived amateur rap group called Sweet 'n Sour. -
Amy's first guitar
At the age of 12, Winehouse was accepted into the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School, and a year later she received her first guitar. -
Expulsion from the Theatre School & Big Break
But by the age of 16, Winehouse was expelled for "not applying herself" and piercing her nose. That same year, she caught her first big break when a schoolmate and close friend, pop singer Tyler James, passed her demo tape to his label, A&R, who was searching for a jazz vocalist. The opportunity led her to a record deal with Island/Universal. -
Debut album: Frank
was a critically acclaimed mixture of jazz, pop, soul and hip-hop. The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize as well as two BRIT awards for Best Female Solo Artist and Best Urban Act. The debut single on the album, "Stronger Than Me," earned the new artist an Ivor Novello award. Frank also hit double platinum status. -
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Relationships and Substance Abuse
During this time, Winehouse began developing a reputation as an unstable party girl, often showing up to her club or TV performances too drunk to sing a whole set. She also started a tumultuous, on-again-off-again relationship with music video assistant Blake Fielder-Civil who admitted to introducing Winehouse to hard drugs. In public, the couples' arguments often devolved into fistfights and dramatic scenes. In private, their romance centered around drugs, alcohol and physical abuse. -
Rehab and Back to Black
Her management company finally suggested that she should enter rehab for alcohol abuse. Instead, she dumped the company and turned the experience into the lead single for her second, critically acclaimed album Back to Black. The song "Rehab," which addressed her refusal to receive treatment for substance abuse, became a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom and earned the artist another Ivor Novello award for best contemporary song -
Marriage
In April of 2007, Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil were engaged. Winehouse revealed that her romance with the 23-year-old was the inspiration for several of the Back to Black tracks. The couple eloped and married on May 18, 2007, in a ceremony in Miami, Florida. -
Erratic Behaviour
On August 8, 2007, the singer overdosed on several drugs, and was hospitalized. First claiming exhaustion, Winehouse later told the News of the World that she overdosed after she had used a mix of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, whisky and vodka during a bar crawl in London. The episode put a planned tour of North America on hold. The August 21, 2007, announcement indicated that Winehouse had been ordered to rest and was working with doctors to address her health. -
Death
Sadly, at the end of her life, Winehouse's enormous talent was overshadowed by her addiction to drugs and alcohol. The singer died tragically on July 23, 2011, at the age of 27 from accidental alcohol poisoning.
