On July 23, 2011, Amy Winehouse was found dead in bed at her Camden home in London, three empty vodka bottles (two large and one small) at her feet. At 27, the Englishwoman was one of the finest voices of her generation. Funny, smart, loud-mouthed, the jazz singer became ultra-popular thanks to her second album Back to Black, produced by Mark Ronson. Thousands of young girls imitate her sixties pin-up style, her high hair held back by a knot and her way of highlighting her eyes with a thick line of black eyeliner.
Yet she is depressed and fragile. Her parents divorced when she was 9 years old. Her father left home, a tragedy from which she will never recover, seeking his love in the eyes of all the men she meets. Bulimic since she was 15, she is addicted to drugs, alcohol, and dysfunctional love affairs. In fact, she wrote her biggest hits after being dumped by her boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil, a neighborhood loser she’s crazy about. When he left her in 2005, she stopped eating and drank from morning to night. His friends try to take him to a cure for treatment. Amy replies that she will only go if her father thinks it is a good idea. But then, for Mitch Winehouse, ubiquitous daddy hen since his daughter became successful, “she doesn’t need to go.” End of the discussion. Amy draws on gin bottles and her pain to write Back to Black. She is harassed by the paparazzi.
Released in 2006, Back to Black is one of the best-selling albums of the century in the UK. It also allows her to win five Grammy Awards, a record for a female artist. Yet her friend Nick Shymansky refuses to continue managing her until she takes better care of her health. The singer then asks Raye Cosbert, her promoter, to also become her manager, much to the chagrin of Nick Gatfield, at the time president of his Island Records label, who understands the dangers of being managed by someone whose principal interest is to make it play as much as possible, in as many cities as possible. He knows that Amy is vulnerable when she’s on the road…
With the success of Back to Black, Amy rises to superstardom. She is constantly filmed, photographed, recorded. Having become extremely wealthy, her unemployed ex-boyfriend Blake decides, as if by chance, to come back into her life. They married in May 2007 in Miami. In the wedding basket, Blake will place only one gift: crack cocaine, a highly addictive drug. Blinded by flashes of paparazzi, Amy fails to see that her life is being derailed. During her concerts, she sings out of tune, slaps her face, her green eyes wide: she is stoned. After her first overdose, her father makes her spend a few days in a luxury hotel and then ruthlessly sends her on tour.
In Amy, Asif Kapadia’s excellent 2015 documentary on the star, Lauren, her best childhood friend, says she was annoyed: “We begged Mitch to stop her from going on tour, to take her passport , to do something. She needed help. He replied, “I can’t do that, his tour is booked!” She’s 23, and the doctors are clear: next time she overdoses, she’ll pass. Blake, however, breaks into his hotel room to bring him heroin. He doesn’t seem to want her to get away with it, for fear of letting such a good thing slip away.
Nevertheless, Amy’s father and his promoter find a clinic that agrees to treat both drug addicts at the same time. It’s risky, and not very ethical… Besides, in the center, Blake continues to water his wife with drugs. Luckily for Amy’s health, in July 2008, her husband was sent to prison for assaulting a bar owner and attempting to bribe him. Her label took the opportunity to forcibly send the singer to rehab so that she would be clean at the Grammy Awards.
In February 2009, Amy Winehouse is trying to find some peace and rest on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia when her father arrives with a film crew. He indeed became the main character of a reality TV show: My Daughter Amy. The holidays are over.
The record market declines, but Amy must continue to fill stadiums. She can’t stand singing “Back to Black” anymore, so she drinks until she can’t stand, thus sabotaging her own concerts, whose exorbitant fees enrich those around her. Only her father would have enough authority over her to be able to extract her from this infernal spiral. But he too loves this light that reverberates towards him, which even allowed him to release a jazz album. Couldn’t she go on a little longer? No, the doctors are adamant that after years of substance abuse and bulimia, Amy will die if she continues like this. Does she think about it while swallowing those three fatal bottles of vodka on July 22, 2011? She has 416 mg of alcohol in her blood when her heart stops. “It wasn’t just the drugs that killed her, but the pressure, the pack after her,” commented Pete Doherty, with whom she had a brief affair.
Dans « Rehab », Amy Winehouse chantait : « They tried to make me go to rehab / But I said, no, no, no / Yes, I’ve been black / But when I come-back / You’ll know, know, know / I ain’t got the time / And if my daddy thinks I’m fine… »
