Amy Winehouse
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
At the age of 16, after she had been expelled from stage school, she caught her first break when pop singer Tyler James, a schoolmate and close friend, passed on her demo tape to his A&R, who was searching for a jazz vocalist. That opportunity led her to attain a recording contract with Island Records. At the end of 2003, when she was 20 years old, Island released her debut album, Frank. With contributions from hip-hop producer and keyboardist Salaam Remi, Winehouses amalgam of jazz, pop, soul, and hip-hop received rave reviews. The album was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize as well as two Brit Awards, but its lead single, Stronger Than Me, won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song. Following her debut, the accolades and inquiring interviews appeared concurrently in the press with her tempestuous ongoings. In 2006, her management company finally suggested that she enter into rehab for alcohol abuse, but instead, she dumped the company and transcribed the ordeal into the U.K. Top Ten hit Rehab. It was the lead single for her second critically acclaimed album, Back to Black. This time around the music delved into the sounds of 50s-60s rock & roll, R&B, and soul with productions divided between Remi and British DJ and multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson.
