Amy Winehouse

Amy Jade Winehouse was born September 14, 1983. Winehouse was born into a Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians. She grew up in the suburb of Southgate, North London, and attended Ashmole School.

At around age 10, Winehouse founded a short-lived amateur rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour, as Sour. She described the group as "the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa". She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School aged 12 but was expelled at 13 for "not applying herself" and piercing her own nose. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon.

She grew up listening to a diverse range of music(from Salt 'n' Pepa to Sarah Vaughan) and received her first guitar aged 13.

After her friend, soul singer Tyler James, gave her demo tape to an A&R person, she was discovered and began singing professionally at age 16.

Amy signed to her current record label, Island/Universal, under management company 19 Management.

Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released on October 20, 2003. It was produced mainly by Salaam Remi with many songs having 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 (sometimes explicit) lyrics and brought comparisons of her voice to, amongst others, Sarah Vaughan and Macy Gray.

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 sell platinum.

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 per cent behind the album" because of the inclusion of certain songs and mixes she disliked by her record label. 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."

Back to Black, Winehouse's second album, was released on October 30, 2006, a little more than three years since the release of Frank. 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 contrast to her jazz-influenced former album, Winehouse's focus is described as "shifting to the girl groups of the Fifties and Sixties". The eleven-track album was produced entirely by Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, with the production credits being split between them almost equally.

The first single released from the album on October 23, 2006 was the Ronson-produced "Rehab", a song about her past refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre after it was encouraged by her management company. She left the management company after this incident. On October 22, 2006, based solely on download sales, it entered the UK Singles Chart at #19 and when the CD single was released the following week, it climbed to #7. On 14 January 2007, the album rose one spot from #2 to reach the #1 position on the UK Album Chart. After the success of her BRIT award win her album again rose to #1 on 25 February.

In early October 2006, Winehouse's official website was re-launched with a new layout and clips of previously unreleased songs. Winehouse performed three headline gigs in September 2006 and in November 2006 performed another ten across the UK, including headlining one of the Little Noise Sessions charity concerts at the Union Chapel, Islington. She is scheduled to headline another fourteen gigs over February 2007 - March 2007. On November 9, 2006 Winehouse announced she had been approached by one of the producers of the James Bond movies to sing the main theme of Bond 22.

The second single from the album was "You Know I'm No Good". The single was released on January 8, 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It made #18 in the UK singles chart and, in the same week's chart, "Rehab" climbed back up to #20. Back to Black is scheduled for release in the United States in March 2007, with "You Know I'm No Good" as its lead single. A third UK single, "Back to Black", is due for release on April 2, 2007.

At the Brit Awards 2007, she performed her hit "Rehab". She won the Best British Female Artist award.

:Winehouse has a number of "old school" tattoos of naked women on her body. When asked about them, she was quoted as saying "I like pin-up girls. I'm more of a boy than a girl. I'm not a lesbian, though - not before a sambuca anyway."

:Amy's favourite cocktail is a Rickstasy (three parts vodka, one part Southern Comfort, one part banana liqueur, and one part Baileys). "By the time you've had two of them you're like, don't even try and go anywhere. Sit down and stay down, until the birds start singing."

:She was friends with Matt Willis and, for a brief time, Billie Piper whilst at the Sylvia Young Theatre School.

:In November 2006 Winehouse was featured in NME Magazine's annual Cool list for the first time, reaching Number 50.

:She also made an appearance on the third series of The Fast Show, appearing in a school play sketch featuring Simon Day in his "Competitive Dad" guise - which seemed to be in jest "considering the nature of the show."

:On January 10 Amy sang for BBC Radio 1 Show Live Lounge. During the session, Amy sang her new single "You Know I'm No Good", and covered the Zutons song "Valerie".
The Mark Ronson-produced tracks feature the backing of the Daptone Records house band, The Dap Kings.

:She revealed to Ireland's Hot Press that her first kiss "was about 11 or 12 and it was with a Greek boy called Chris. .... who's gay now!"

:Winehouse appeared with Paul Weller at his BBC Electric Proms gig, where Weller introduced her as "one of the greatest vocalists around at the moment". They performed an Etta Jones song called "Don't Go To Strangers".

:Amy Winehouse once attributed her slim figure to giving up cannabis. The former anorexia and bulimia sufferer said: "I stopped smoking weed and started going to the gym. I'm a size eight now, I was a size 10 before."

:In Winehouse's song "Rehab," she refers to "Ray" and "Mr. Hathaway." These are references to Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway.

:She has been referred to as "Telly's new Olly Reed" in the press after numerous drunk television appearances. This is a reference to the late Oliver Reed. Also "Amy Alehouse", "Amy Wino" and "Amy Wino-house" by numerous Tabloid journalists.

Amy is currently topping the iTunes and Amazon charts.