BACK TO BLACK

They tried to make her go to rehab, but she said: “No, no, no...” Nigel Williamson remembers the incredible voice of Amy Jade Winehouse

- Nigel Williamson

When Amy Winehouse first burst onto the scene in 2003, it was immediately evident that she came from a radically different tradition to the girl-next-door types such as Dido and Katie Melua who were dominating the charts at the time. With her potent, soulful voice and whisky-breathed, nicotine-stained, bad-girl attitude, Winehouse stood defiantly in the lineage of lusty, ball-busting divas of earlier eras such as Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin

She shared with them many of the same traits – a complex mix of fierce pride, bruised vulnerability and an unhealthy predilection for self-destruction. Yet out of the chaos of a deeply troubled personal life, Winehouse fashioned a rare artistry to rival Dusty Springfield as the most talented British female singer ever to grace a stage.

The wild child image, which the media fed upon and the marketing men exploited with relish, was not contrived – if only it had been a cynical marketing ploy, then she would still be with us today. Sadly the “troubled track” which she sang of treading in Back To Black was all too dangerously real. Almost from the outset, she cut a doomed figure who lived on the edge. Yet along with the impression that she was never far away from self-immolation came a colossal talent.

Winehouse was just 20 when she made her breakthrough, but her artistic maturity was remarkable as she married a thrilling jazz-soul voice of compelling conviction to a precocious songwriting talent.