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Born in London, England, on September 14, 1983
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Amy Winehouse broke into the music business when, at age 16, a classmate passed on her demo tape to a record label
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Her debut album, Frank (2003), 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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Winehouse's life and career were the focus of the critically acclaimed documentary Amy, directed by Asif Kapadia, which hit theaters in 2015. While the work has been widely celebrated, receiving an Academy Award in 2016 for best documentary.
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By 2006, her management company finally suggested that Winehouse 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 (2006).
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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.
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Winehouse's European tour in the fall of 2007, however, was scheduled to continue. But while in Norway in October of 2007, an anonymous tip led police to the star's hotel in Bergen, where she was arrested and held in prison overnight for marijuana possession. Winehouse, her husband Fielder-Civil and a third unidentified person were jailed. The trio was released after paying $715 in fines.
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In January 2008, a video allegedly showing Winehouse smoking crack cocaine surfaced, leading to a brief stint in rehab. She was arrested in May 2008 for questioning, but wasn't formally charged in the case after police said they could not officially determine what the singer was smoking.
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Her erratic behavior continued in June 2008, when she appeared to punch a fan during a performance at the Glastonbury Music Festival in England. Londoner James Gostelow, 25, told BBC News that Winehouse elbowed him in the forehead after someone in the crowd behind him threw a hat at her.
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Regardless of personal setbacks, 2009 proved to be another strong year for Winehouse. In 2008, her album Back to Black was declared the second-highest selling album in the world, and in 2009, she earned entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Grammy Awards Won by a British Female Act."
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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.
