«I like all kinds of music, but when it comes to writing, I especially love Amy Winehouse because you feel like you are listening to a piece of her life. Even though he’s singing about specific things that haven’t happened to you, you relate. Maybe that’s why I write like this. I’m not an abstract girl, I get straight to the point.
These were the words of Olivia Dean, the fashionable singer, seller of millions of copies lately and favorite for the 2027 Grammys, when she started, in May 2020. In another interview from 2021, that is, still 2 years before her debut album, she repeated more or less the same thing but adding: “I don’t think Amy had any interest in being a pop star. She just wanted to be herself. He had a genuine love for music. “It’s clear in his music that he’s using it as a form of therapy.”
These latest statements come from a series of short interviews uploaded to Amy’s YouTube channel, in which people as different as Nile Rodgers, Yungblud and Jamie Cullum gave their opinions on her legacy. Due to the relevance that it has acquired in recent times, we must also highlight the early contribution of a then unknown Lola Young, who, very much in her vein, particularly praised the feeling of freedom that inspired her: «You see her interviews and it is clear that she refuses to be anyone other than herself, which is very strange, because when you are an artist, there are a lot of people behind the cameras telling you what you should say, what dress you should wear, that is, basically who you should be. She said things that no one said except her. “She was self-confident, striking, hilarious, brilliant, intelligent.”
The comparisons with Amy have been especially bitter for RAYE, to the point that she faces them at the start of her latest album ‘This Music May Contain Hope’, also a favorite for the 2027 Grammys. As we see in a Billboard interview, they have really made her angry. And not because they are not a compliment, but because of all the “hate” she has received from the type “you will never be Amy Winehouse”, in her head incompatible with all the hate and pressure from the press that was in turn projected on Winehouse during her life.
Adding the version of ‘You Know I’m No Good’ that the Rolling Stones have just included in their new album, or the unusual success of imitators and tribute concerts – some imitations are creepy – it seems that Amy Winehouse’s legacy is more alive than ever. Even strange news about his inheritance continues to emerge. Recently her father lost a lawsuit against two of Amy’s friends – her stylist Naomi Parry and her roommate Catriona Gourlay – who had auctioned 155 objects that the singer had given them during her lifetime. Clothes, ballet shoes, bags, earrings and makeup. Mitch was asking for his share of the pie because he claimed that he had not been informed of the auctions. He never had enough.
Maybe that’s why a new reissue of ‘Back to Black’ comes out on October 23, when there may be nothing to add to an album that had several “deluxe” editions, almost from the second zero. Which has also been republished several times. At some point we will have to assume that this woman could only make 2 and a half albums, as hard as that may be.
Or perhaps it was inevitable that Universal would carry out some action for the 20th anniversary of what continues to be one of the magnum opuses of the 21st century, selling up to 25 million copies. No, we did not find another artist so free, particular and unmistakable. And not because of the “beehive” bun, the sometimes smudged pin-up part, or the indistinctly unfortunate or hilarious images walking around Camden, in just a bra and panties. Listening to his voice means continuing to face, in all its palette of nuances, pain (‘Back to Black’), jealousy (‘Me & Mr Jones’), optimism (‘Tears Dry On Their Own’), hope (‘He Can Only Hold Her’, Olivia Dean’s favorite), resignation (‘Wake Up Alone’), alcoholism (‘Rehab’) or sensuality (‘Just Friends’). Of course Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Ray Charles had influenced him. But it was she who gave those classic sounds such cheeky, fresh, sexual and irreverent lyrics, as well as poetic in their unique authorship. ‘Love Is a Losing Game’ is one she wrote completely alone. Expressions that always seemed like t-shirts, like “you don’t mean dick to me” or “sniffed me out like I was Tanqueray”, continue to bring a smile.
The new reissue will include the original album, a bunch of demos – including 4 unreleased ones – as well as the concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam, from 2007. There are new photos by the same authors of the original session, although the most interesting thing may be the texts written by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, among others. Someone recently commented on Popsquare “The older I get, the more I realize how young Amy was when she died,” and it is in that collective sadness that we still feel over her absence that we will find a little comfort.
And although the artist’s claim is still very valid and her listens are millionaires on streaming platforms (‘Back to Black’ is close to 2,000 million views), other times her statistics do not match her talent. He occupies a discreet position number 384 among the most listened to artists in the world. In Spotify’s Global top 200 we find 3 songs by the late Michael Jackson, 4 old hits by Coldplay, 8 songs by Bruno Mars -most of them from the catalog-, 3 cuts by Arctic Monkeys, 2 songs by Radiohead, 1 by Oasis, 1 by Nirvana, 1 by Evanescence and even 1 by The Police, but never any by Amy Winehouse. And if a song enters the British charts from time to time, does that always have to be the version of ‘Valerie’?
Those of us who love Amy’s music will never have enough, especially in these times when it seems that only old music is heard anymore. It seems that the synchronization with the appropriate series or film has not yet arrived, the opportune trend on TikTok, which returns Winehouse to number 1, the one she occupied recurrently, between 2006 and 2011, when she died.
