WinehouseвЂ™s boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil - who she eventually married in the year after the albumвЂ™s release - left her for an ex in the months before she began writing it, and the trauma of feeling left behind, forgotten, is audible in every song. It also reminded us of WinehouseвЂ™s enormous talent.ДЄt its heart, Back To Black is a breakup album. In a sense, it exhumed her from a fucked-up tabloid presence and humanized her experience. But what that film also does exceedingly well is show us who Winehouse was away from all of the horrors we got too used to. As a fan, or a spectator, it elicits a sense of responsibility for the singer, an urge to shoulder the blame. When you watch KapadiaвЂ™s Amy, it is almost impossible not to feel complicit in her death. ThereвЂ™s a realness we crave and then recoil from when it becomes too real. Tortured, but not so tortured they canвЂ™t give us a killer performance.

We like our stars relatable, but not too normal. вЂњAuthenticityвЂќ and вЂњsincerityвЂќ are two of the weightiest words we use when discussing celebrity and pop music. Everything Winehouse did seemed to come from a place of profound love for the music. Adele wouldnвЂ™t be as massive as she is without Winehouse, and even Adele will admit that. Winehouse was as authentic as a celebrity could get, and she paved the way for a lot of other artists to readily be themselves. She had a certain look and schtick that no one else was selling, and she sold it better than anyone else could, because she didnвЂ™t really ever seem to want to be famous. Above her was a smattering of rock-ish music from Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Plain White TвЂ™s, and a few party anthems (Shop BoyzвЂ™ вЂњParty Like A Rock Star,вЂќ T-PainвЂ™s вЂњBuy U A Drank,вЂќ RihannaвЂ™s вЂњUmbrellaвЂќ). At the time вЂњRehabвЂќ peaked on the Billboard Hot 100, she was an old soul sandwiched between Justin TimberlakeвЂ™s вЂњSummer LoveвЂќ (at #8) and Lil MamaвЂ™s вЂњLip GlossвЂќ (#10, great song). In many ways, Amy Winehouse was an unconventional celebrity. She was the person who made 2003вЂ™s Frank and then Back To Black, the singer with an inimitable voice who drew inspiration from sources far from the mainstream. That was the look she owned comfortably, as an artist whose most famous song is about refusing to go to rehab.Д«ut there was another Winehouse known to a select few as a genius. She was a celebrity, the kind that people had grown accustomed to seeing traipsing around some city, bruised and battered in dirtied ballet flats, towering beehive in disarray, strands of stray hair stuck in her iconic smudged wingtips. Winehouse was a tabloid headline for almost as long as she was a presence on the radio. The singer had undergone a very public struggle with drug addiction and alcohol abuse, and a much more private and sheltered battle with bulimia. Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning at her home in Camden on Jat the age of 27. When a musician dies young, all of their work becomes a road map to destruction. ItвЂ™s impossible to revisit Back To Black 10 years on and not think about this basic, tragic fact. And then, three years later, she was dead. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened for a moment before she turned to hug her band, her mom, her dad, her closest friends. She watched one of her idols, Tony Bennett (who later stated that Winehouse had вЂњthe complete giftвЂќ), proclaim her the winner of Record Of The Year from a small, private gathering in London. A year later, Winehouse won three Grammy Awards for the song at the age of 25. Its opening track and debut single, вЂњRehab,вЂќ would peak at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007. Seven months later, Winehouse released Back To Black in the UK. She worked with Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, and as Ronson remembers it, Winehouse wrote the title trackвЂ™s lyrics in an hour after hearing the songвЂ™s piano chords. Those were the thoughts that Winehouse distilled in March of 2006 when she recorded the bulk of her second (and final) album, Back To Black. вЂњYou might have to remember what the weather was like, you might have to remember what his neck smelled like. вЂњWhen you write a song, you have to remember how you felt,вЂќ Amy Winehouse says, as she recalls the making of Back To Black in a scene from Asif KapadiaвЂ™s Oscar-winning documentary Amy.

Back to black amy winehouse