[Music]
amy winehouse was one of the most
notable musicians of her day
sadly however she was also notorious for
her turbulent private life
from her early troubles to her untimely
passing this is the tragic real-life
story of amy winehouse
amy winehouse began to show talent from
a very young age unfortunately she also
began to show the first signs of the
various troubles that would plague her
adult life
winehouse was born in 1983 to cab driver
mitch winehouse and pharmacist janice
winehouse
her childhood was full of music since so
many members of her family were jazz
musicians
she was exposed to a whole range of
different musical styles
and by the time she was 10 she was even
part of a salt and peppa influenced rap
band called sweet and sour
in 1996 a 12-year-old winehouse managed
to get a place at the prestigious sylvia
young theater school
but she was kicked out at just 16. it
appears that her rebellious streak may
have been raising its head by this point
as the reason for her expulsion was that
the young winehouse was failing to apply
herself in her studies
it didn't help that she had dared to
pierce her nose too not exactly the most
devastating acts of disobedience sure
but things weren't going to get smoother
from there
winehouse was a huge fan of body ink and
one of her most prominent tattoos was an
arm piece picturing a crude pinup girl
surrounded with hearts and the name
cynthia but this wasn't just some random
walk-in piece
it was a special tribute to winehouse's
grandmother cynthia and she designed it
in collaboration with tattoo artist
henry haight
who made the deliberately crude piece
with little idea that it would go on to
become one of the most recognizable
tattoo designs in the world
hate gets the occasional request to
tattoo the same design on other people
but he always refuses out of respect to
winehouse
and that tattoo's original meaning
winehouse was extremely close with her
grandmother who was also a singer and
was highly supportive of her
granddaughter's artistic aspirations
winehouse's first manager nick
scheimanski even considered cynthia to
be the singer's guardian
and both he and winehouse's father
believe that cynthia's death was the
event that triggered the artist's
downward spiral
during the mid-2000s winehouse had a
famous and famously turbulent love
affair with blakefielder civil
they started dating in 2005 which also
marked the start of winehouse's shift in
appearance
from the comparatively conventional look
of her jazzy frank era to her famous
tattoos winged eyeliner and beehive
hairdo
fielder civil has fully admitted that he
was the one who introduced the singer to
heroin crack cocaine and self-harming
and although he said he felt more than
guilty about it it didn't make the
pair's relationship any less difficult
they broke up got together and broke up
again they got married and had a divorce
at least once they fought so badly that
they were reportedly covered with blood
and bruises
oh and by the time winehouse had made
her breakthrough and risen to the top of
the music industry
fielder civil was in prison for assault
when she died in 2011 he was in prison
again
this time for attempted robbery and
possession of a fake gun
yet despite the many many red flags
winehouse always seemed to consider
field or civil as something of a muse
even during his worst troubles she
showed public support for him several
times
and she famously boasted a tattoo of his
name close to her heart
winehouse's substance abuse started to
spiral out of control around the time
her grandmother became deathly ill in
early 2005.
what's more the bulimia she quietly
struggled with as a teen made a comeback
and her rocky relationship with blake
fielder civil wasn't helping things
either
eventually things became so bad that her
manager nick scheimanski tried his best
to convince winehouse to go to rehab and
sort things out
she was fine with the idea and
everything was in order but she wanted
her father to back up her attempt to get
sober
mitch winehouse promised shimanski to
tell his daughter that the rehab plan
was a good idea but just as happens in
the lyrics to our iconic song rehab
mitch told his daughter that she didn't
need to go after all
my dad did actually go you're right i
need to go so i said all right dad i'll
go and meet him and then we'll back
out which i did she didn't need to go to
rehab
this incident has widely been described
as winehouse's last chance at tackling
her issues
before becoming a sought-after superstar
made it doubly more difficult
and while she did eventually give rehab
a shot in 2008 by then
it was far too late amy winehouse did
more than her share of walking on the
wild side so it's not exactly a shock
that she had a few run-ins with the
police over the years
a lot of this unwelcome attention from
the law seems to have coincided with the
turbulent years after back to black
propelled her to superstardom
tragically it also seems to be in
connection with her issues with
substance abuse
in 2007 winehouse was arrested in norway
and spent the night in custody for
cannabis possession
this wasn't her only arrest that year
however as she was also briefly arrested
due to an unspecified case involving her
husband blake fielder civil
winehouse's troubles with the law
continued in 2008 when she was arrested
for allegedly assaulting someone outside
a bar in london
there was another assault allegation
against her that year along with an
incident that saw her arrested for
alleged drug offenses
that wasn't the end of it either in 2009
the singer ended up in court for
allegedly punching a dancer in the eye
at the backstage of a summer ball
after said dancer had asked for a selfie
with her later that year winehouse
attacked a theater owner who was trying
to stop her from making a scene at a
performance of cinderella
everyone who's even passingly familiar
with amy winehouse's story knows about
her long-running struggles with
addiction
after she gained recognition in the
british media she began to drink heavily
possibly as a way of dealing with the
pressures of fame
but i don't think i'm gonna be at all
famous
i don't think i could handle it things
only became worse after blakefield or
civil introduced her to heart drugs
by 2009 winehouse's addictions had
started to severely affect both her
voice and her career
and she was notorious for appearing on
stage visibly drunk
the crowd started booing her and
concerts were cancelled and although
winehouse's representatives attributed
these bumps in the road to health issues
her troubles with alcohol were obvious
to pretty much everyone
unfortunately she was unable to correct
the course it was alcohol that
ultimately killed her in 2011
at just 27 years old on paper amy
winehouse's tragic tale of fame
addiction death seems like a fairly
straightforward story but there might be
more to the tale than that
ausef capadia the director of the
oscar-winning documentary amy
believes that the artist may have
suffered from brain damage that as he
put it prevented her from thinking
straight
capadia bases his theory on a claim that
weinhaus had a number of overdoses and
seizures during her years of substance
abuse
but he's not the first person to
speculate on the potential damage to the
singer's brain
in 2008 the press reported that medical
professionals had warned winehouse that
another drug binge might actually kill
her
and that several doctors were genuinely
concerned that the vast amount of drugs
she was taking could leave her with
brain damage
it's hard to know how accurate this is
however considering the way the media
treated her at the time
it's probably fair to say that at some
point in their careers most british
celebrities have had to struggle with
unwanted attention from the country's
tabloids
however amy winehouse had to play the
press game on hard mode
much of this was because the media field
was shifting at the time
as a troubled famous person prone to the
occasional public meltdown and an era
before youtube and facebook had gotten
big
she was in the worst possible place at
the worst possible time when it came to
unwanted media attention
people can never get enough of
celebrities with difficulties and
winehouse pretty much
led that twisted voyeurism into the
digital age
because her face attached to a cover
story was basically a license to print
money she was constantly hounded by the
paparazzi assaf capadia director of the
documentary amy
says that the singer was essentially
trapped in a situation where almost
everybody close to her had a media deal
of some sort
leaving everyone looking out for their
own interest and she herself getting
more and more lost in the middle of it
all
often artists can seem completely doomed
with their careers all but dead in the
water and then they unexpectedly get
their act together to re-emerge in a
glorious comeback that sets them back on
the right path
unfortunately not everyone can pull this
off because it requires the artist to
have actually spent some time wrestling
their demons into submission
amy winehouse certainly hadn't
accomplished this when she embarked on
her comeback tour in 2011.
winehouse had largely avoided the stage
for the previous two years so her
european tour had all the markings of a
grand comeback
but when she entered the stage in
belgrade serbia it was evident this
comeback was going to be anything but
glorious
it was however a painful demonstration
that her addiction issues were far from
behind her
winehouse randomly stopped a song
halfway through to introduce the band
only to barely remember their names she
suddenly made a freaked out backup
dancer take over the vocals on valerie
at one point she decided to take off a
shoe all in all the media considered the
concert the worst in belgrade's history
and even the country's minister of
defense called it in his words
a huge shame and a disappointment the
rest of the tour was promptly cancelled
we're going to turn now to a major loss
in the music world tonight the gifted
singer amy winehouse found dead in her
london home she was just 27.
after years of excruciating public
struggles with drugs alcohol and the law
amy winehouse's life came to an end on
july 23
2011. winehouse was only 27 years old
when she died and her cause of death was
ruled as accidental alcohol poisoning
before her death she had developed a
pattern in which she stayed sober for
weeks before falling off the wagon with
a drinking binge
eventually her body just couldn't take
anymore winehouse was found lifeless in
her room the next morning with a
staggering blood alcohol level
of .416 at the time of her death of
course it's worth pointing out that
winehouse's death almost certainly was
accidental
shortly before her death winehouse said
specifically told doctors that she
didn't wish to die
and that she was looking forward to her
future by all accounts the death of amy
winehouse really was a tragic mistake
in 2013 winehouse's brother alex
winehouse put forward an alternate
theory for
the cause of her death he doesn't
exactly contest the coroner's ruling of
death by misadventure and he fully
admits that his famous sister's vast
drug and alcohol levels did no favors to
her health
however alex feels that it wasn't
narcotics that most contributed to his
sister's untimely passing but an eating
disorder
winehouse had struggled with bulimia for
years and her brother feels that her
physique was significantly weakened by
periods of extreme overeating and the
bouts of vomiting and depression that
typically follow
alex winehouse says that the condition
stemmed from the singer's teenage years
when she had a group of friends who
would eat and throw up food together
he says that most of them eventually
stopped but the conditions stuck with
his sister
and since she wasn't prepared to really
talk about it her eating disorder was a
difficult issue to bring up still alex
decided to breach the subject after his
sister's death in order to raise
awareness for the condition
today he co-runs the amy winehouse
foundation in his sister's name