This Day in Music History:MARCH 12TH

2007 Amy Winehouse made her US television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman performing 'Rehab'. The song went on to win three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and also won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.

Source

Song of the Day - Long Day - Amy Winehouse (2001ish)

Amy Winehouse BBC One Show 2007

LONG LIVE THE SOUL OF AMY WINEHOUSE

I have to apologize...I am having my 100th love affair with Amy! She has been dominating my music selection the past few days and I can't seem to pick any other songs of the day ;)

She was such a remarkable woman, musician, artist and soul. Even after her death, pieces of her soul remain in the music she left behind. I have never seen a musician infuse emotion the way that she did in her own lyrics and music, as well as covers. This woman gripped me 10 years ago now and I have never experienced anything like it!

LONG LIVE THE SOUL OF AMY WINEHOUSE Xx

Song of the Day - You Sent Me Flying - Amy Winehouse (North Sea Jazz 2004)

She was one of a kind <3

AMY 2015

Congratulations to Asif Kapadia and team for winning the Oscar for Best Documentary!

She was one of the truest artists the world has known.

"I made an album I'm very proud of, and that's about it."- Amy Winehouse

This Day in Music History: FEBRUARY 7TH

2008 Amy Winehouse was told she could not perform at this year's Grammy awards ceremony because her US visa application has been rejected by the embassy in London. The singer was arrested for marijuana possession in Norway last year. Winehouse has been nominated for six Grammy awards ahead of the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Source

"Music is the only thing that will give and give and give and not take." 

Source

- Amy Winehouse

This Day in Music History: JANUARY 24TH

2008 Amy Winehouse was admitted into rehab in a battle to kick her addiction to drugs. A statement from her record company, Universal said she entered the facility "after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors to continue her ongoing recovery against drug addiction."

Source

Song of the Day: Acoustic Amy - 2006

Amy was the master! This recording is so good it hurts-

-Rehab

-Love is a Losing Game

-You Know I'm No Good

This Day in Music History: OCTOBER 27TH

2006 Amy Winehouse released her second and final studio album (Best Album of all Time) Back to Black which spawned five singles: 'Rehab', 'You Know I'm No Good', 'Back to Black', 'Tears Dry on Their Own' and 'Love Is a Losing Game.'It went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Back to Black sold 3.58 million copies in the UK alone, becoming the UK's second best-selling album of the 21st century. Worldwide, the album has sold over 20 million copies.
Source

Picture Source

From Swims in My Eyes to Swims in a Sea of Mediocrity: Adele’s Success Reminds Us of the Tremendous Loss of Amy Winehouse

Adele “burst” on to the music scene a few years back as the more packable, controllable, and far less substantial version of Amy Winehouse.  As her talent is aggrandized by the masses with the release of her new album, we can’t help but re-mourn the loss of a much rarer talent who, though never as commercially successful as Adele, but has proved to be every bit more enduring – Amy Winehouse.

Amy came out with “Back to Black” in late 2006 – a brash, honest and incredible album, dripping in soul and sincerity. Though her fame skyrocketed, her brand was not clean-cut nor easy to control. Following Amy’s success, Adele was among the flock that attempted to capitalize on that cash cow that was neo-soul – and she’s been quite successful in doing so. She was packaged and sold to be a neater, more commercially appealing version of Amy, with all of the sharp edges filed and smoothed down.

Granted, Adele has a beautiful, powerful voice and should be commended for writing her own music - as trite as the lyrics may often be. But to us, the enormous success of her “safe,” widely appealing, radio-friendly music mirrors the shallowness of the music industry and, in turn, society at large.

 “[Did] Amy Winehouse invent white soul? Wearing a beehive? No. But she did something brand new and fresh, altogether as a package. And you see who's in her wake, from the Duffys to the Lana Del Reys. Adele selling 20 million records? That would not have happened if Amy Winehouse was alive” – Jack White (Rolling Stone Magazine, 2014).

When it came to her art, Amy lived by her conviction that there is nothing more important than soul and sincerity. Unlike the vast majority of musicians today, authenticity was far more important to her than getting rich or being popular. Sure, she could have made more money if she had forsaken her truth in order to churn out as much marketable, widely appealing material as possible. But she would have rather died.

“I don't ever want to do anything mediocre. I hear the music in the charts and I don't mean to be rude, but those people have no soul. Learning from music is like eating a meal...you have to pace yourself. You can't take everything from it all at once. I want to be different, definitely. I'm not a one trick pony. I'm at least a five-trick pony.” – Amy Winehouse

We live in a world where painfully mediocre (at best) musicians like Adele and Taylor Swift are considered to be the cream of the commercialized crop, often (laughably) lauded as “true artists.” Society’s incessant preference for shallowness over depth is evident in every area of culture, from the mass-produced garbage on the radio to the mindless reality shows on television.  And although there’s no use in getting agitated over it, sometimes it’s difficult not to.

But brilliant, gutsy artists like Amy remind us that soul will never die – even in this pitiful cultural climate, she found success. And her legacy is already being remembered alongside the legendary likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Amy is a bittersweet reminder that, even in the midst of permeating shallowness, there will always be individuals who recognize and appreciate authenticity, and keep it alive.

Long Live the Soul of Amy Winehouse. 

With love, Kaitlin & Julia