Amy Winehouse documentary reminds me of a dirty laundry basket

In honor of the singer's 32nd birthday, "365" remembers Amy Winehouse through the eyes of her musical colleagues and friends, from Tony Bennett to Russell Brand.

It’s hard to imagine how many more beautiful songs and duets we could have heard if the life of one of the most talented singers of our time had not been cut short at the age of 27. Today, September 14, Amy Winehouse would have turned 32 years old. On this day, we want everyone to forget about that “always-under-something” image of the singer, beloved by the tabloids, and try to look at her through the eyes of those people who were directly familiar with her, and on whose lives she left an indelible imprint.

“By the way, she was a great cook!”

“We met in The Good Mixer bar in Camden and immediately became best friends. In fact, that's how I would characterize our relationship in the first place. I really enjoyed living with her. By the way, she was a great cook! Amy also has well-developed maternal feelings, and it is a great blessing to have a woman like her in your life. My parents loved her very much. My father always said that Amy was not a hooligan by nature. And it is true". Blake Fielder-Sivel

Four years ago, on July 23, the popular singer and queen of modern soul Amy Winehouse passed away. Her death was incredibly mysterious, and her funeral was featured on the front pages of various newspapers and on prime-time television programs.

Four years ago, Amy Winehouse's funeral took place in a London cemetery. At the request of the singer’s relatives, the farewell ceremony was intimate. Journalists and numerous fans were not informed in advance about the place and exact time of the funeral. For this reason, hundreds of fans of the soul singer came to her house to at least in this way honor the memory of their idol.

One of the local newspapers in the afternoon local time posted on its website information about which cemetery the cars of celebrities, for example, Amy's friend Kelly Osbourne, were drawn to. Readers of the Daily Telegraph concluded from this that the burial ceremony took place in a Jewish cemetery in north London. Also, the publication clarified that Winehouse wanted to be cremated after her death, which was done with her body.

The ex-husband of the deceased singer was not allowed to attend the funeral of the 27-year-old artist. Firstly, at that time he had not yet been released from the prison in which he was serving time, and Winehouse’s father also spoke out against the presence of Amy’s ex-husband. There are rumors that shortly before her death, the soul singer tried to win back her husband, from whom she filed for divorce in 2009. The artist persistently called her ex-husband and sent SMS messages, which she constantly signed with the words “your wife.”

Later, as it turned out, they said goodbye to the Queen of Soul at Edgewarebury Cemetery in north London. Only Amy Winehouse's friends and family were present at the ceremony itself.

The farewell ceremony for the talented artist was held in accordance with the traditions of Judaism. More than one hundred and fifty guests arrived to say goodbye to Amy Winehouse. Attempts by fans and ordinary onlookers to witness this event were thwarted by a group of security guards who surrounded the cemetery.

Amy Winehouse's body was released to her parents two days after her death and after an autopsy was performed. The version of the singer's murder was ruled out. English tabloids tirelessly published one after another reports that Amy Winehouse purchased cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy from a street dealer shortly before her death, but the police did not find any drugs in her home. And relatives reported that Winehouse saw a doctor on July 22, and he did not find any abnormalities.

Iconic singer Amy Winehouse has joined the list of “Club 27,” which was formed as a result of the death of talented musicians at the age of 27 at the peak of their popularity. It includes the leader of The Doors, singer and poet Jim Morrison, blues vocalist Janis Joplin, one of the greatest guitarists of our time, Jimi Hendrix, vocalist and guitarist of the cult American group Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, and founder of The Rolling Stones, Brian Jones.

“I experienced that paralysis that comes when you see real genius!”

“When we first met in Camden, she was just a freaky girl in a pink jacket, hanging around Camden pubs with our mutual friends. When they told me that she was a jazz singer, it seemed completely absurd to me. “This must be quite eccentric,” I thought. But he still spoke to her. Amy turned out to be, first of all, a sweet, extravagant, a little strange and completely unbridled girl. At one point she suddenly became famous. I was pleased that she was recognized, but, to be honest, it surprised me. Although I was not familiar with her work, it was far from the 50s, and I could not understand why the jazz singer had achieved such popularity. And then I accidentally went to a Paul Weller concert and saw Amy perform live for the first time. I arrived late and, making my way through the plastic smiles of people with plastic cups in their hands, I was suddenly stunned by the powerful female vocals that flowed from the hall. When I walked in, I saw Amy on stage with Paul and his band. I was dumbfounded." Russell Brand

“A lot of people are dying to hear at least some sketches of the music that Amy left behind, because it is so good that even these fragments are better than many full-length albums created by others.” Mark Ronson

Interview with Amy Winehouse's mother

A very frank interview with Amy Winehouse's mother - Janice (September 17, 2014)

Amy Winehouse should have celebrated her 31st birthday the other day, but she died 3 years ago. She had serious problems with drugs and alcohol, as well as a tragic marriage to drug addict Blake Fielder-Civil. She tried to fight her addiction, but on July 23, 2011, alcohol killed her.

Her parents, Mitch and Janice, have been estranged since she was 9. So her mother, Janice, raised her alone and wrote a book about it.

- So, what kind of child was Amy?

- She was mischievous. She was the type that if she was told she couldn't, that's exactly what she did.

-You called her Hurricane Amy? How difficult was it with her?

“I didn’t have the authority to say no to her.” She escaped punishment. I was a very gentle mother.

— Looking back, would you act differently now?

- I believe that I was who I am. I couldn't do it any other way.

— Was she 9 when you and her father Mitch divorced? How did this affect her?

“She always said that everything was fine, that everything was fine. I didn't know if it was true. She was silent.

- Never talked about this?

- No. Because she never wanted to upset me.

— How difficult was it to live with him before you broke up?

-Can we not discuss this? It was so long ago. I'd rather not talk about it.

“But she seemed to adore her father, this tattoo is daddy’s daughter.” And also his mother Cynthia? What role did she play in her life?

— Her grandmother was always with her. If Cynthia said it couldn't be done, Amy listened. She respected Cynthia. And maybe she was afraid.

- And your father?

- That is the problem. That he was gone too often.

- So she wanted to be daddy's girl?

- I think yes.

— Alone, how did you cope with everything?

“I had to cope.”

— But you defended two diplomas. One in natural sciences, the second in pharmacology. How did you manage to manage all this?

- I don’t know, because I somehow did it. It's me. I loved studying.

— You started a new relationship when Amy was 14. How did she cope with it?

“She wasn’t comfortable.” She began to stay away.

- Why?

- Because it was Amy. Amy did what she wanted to do. She just barely showed up at home. Then she moved into an apartment with a friend. She was probably about 16. I had to let her go.

- Why did you have to?

- Because she would have left anyway. She had her own opinion. A classic example: if I said don’t do this, she did it.

- When did she want to sing? When did it start?

- Since the early childhood. As a little girl at home, she sang all the time. This was her passion.

— When did she learn about the music she began to study? About jazz?

— Cynthia was a jazz fan. And Mitch too. So jazz sounded everywhere.

— Did you understand that she has a unique talent?

“I don’t think I understood it at all.” I never said that she had an amazing voice, if only because other children also had wonderful voices. That's why I never particularly singled her out.

— You were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003, but I think it all started much earlier. How did you deal with this?

“I’m not one of those who say this shouldn’t have happened.” I just sort of dealt with everything. I did what I did. And I wanted the children to see that their mother studied.

— What about your attitude to drugs and alcohol?

“This is something I wasn’t very familiar with.” If a child starts doing something like that, you can't just stop him.

- But you, as a mother who works as a pharmacist, could not be completely unaware that the child was drinking, you should have smelled it.

- Yes... I was not assigned as a pharmacist to one place, I worked in different ones. And I saw addicts who came for their dose of methadone. And I gave out methadone. But I could never imagine my daughter in their place.

- What about her father, did he somehow influence what was happening?

“He wasn't around too often.” I had to do so much myself.

- But as a pharmacist, you knew what happened, so could you talk to her about what drugs lead to?

- When you tell a child, this is not good, don’t do it, he will do it because he wants to figure it out on his own.

“But there were times when you drove her to where she got drugs. Why did you continue to do this even after you realized what she was doing?

- Looking back, probably because I wanted to be close, I didn’t want to push her away. I knew I was powerless as a parent.

- How did you feel about her relationship with Blake?

“This is the area where I decided to stay away.”

- Why?

- Because I'm a realist. It's already happened. I just accepted it because there was no other choice.

— You got married in September 2011, Amy died in July. But before she died, she said that she would not be at the wedding. Why didn't she want to come?

“We don’t know exactly why.” Was it a premonition? We do not know.

- How did you react to this?

“She didn’t say that.” It literally sounded like this: You know, I probably won’t be able to be there.

— Was it difficult for her to fight with herself?

“She was trying to cope with drugs. And she did it. Unfortunately, alcohol is another misfortune. Since I studied medicine for a long time, I understood well what addiction is associated with. Addiction takes control of the brain. It's a disease.

— She saw the doctor the day before her death. What did the doctor tell her?

— The doctor asked: Do you want to die? Amy replied: No. The doctor wanted to shock her. So she wasn't going to die.

- Why do you think alcohol killed her?

“Because it’s really poison, it’s a scourge.” She had alcohol poisoning. She could not drink for 5-6 weeks and return to it again. This is the nature of addiction. Many addicts say they have stopped. But it's inside. It's much stronger.

“Did she realize that she was at the height of her fame and this amazing record was going to come out and she was going to go on tour, and then she was so drunk that she couldn’t stand on stage, as far as she was aware of it all?”

“She hated it, I knew it.” She always apologized to me: Sorry, mom, sorry. And sometime at the very beginning, when he lights a cigarette: Sorry, mom, sorry. Or she swore in front of me: Oh, mommy, I'm sorry. Therefore, she was aware of everything, but could not stop.