“Never, never, but never love a man so much,” Amy Winehouse declared at one of the concerts of her last tour (2011) before singing Love is a losing game. From her broken heart sprang the best jazz love and heartbreak lyrics since Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra, but also an addiction to drugs and alcohol that ultimately silenced her voice on July 23, 2011. Today marks 15 years since the great British diva died of respiratory failure caused by an alcoholic coma. She was 27 years old.
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All premature deaths are tragic. However, leaving early, in the case of highly talented artists, turns them into immortal legends. Their gift and moment of maximum vital splendor are frozen forever in time, with no possibility of degrading or growing. This happens with Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin –who, by the way, also died at 27– Marilyn Monroe, and also Amy Winehouse, who 15 years after her death, is still remembered and celebrated worldwide, but especially in her home, Camden Town. There, in the Stables Market Amphitheatre, where a bronze statue of her has stood since 2014, a concert was held on Sunday to pay tribute to the soul diva and her eternal anthems.
The Stables Market amphitheater in Camden Town has held a concert in honor of the artist
Organized by Camden Council, the event’s proceeds went to the foundation named after the artist and created by Mitch Winehouse, her father. He himself opened this NGO a year after his daughter’s death to help vulnerable young people and appease their demons. Because even though the story of this legend remains undeterred, the lives of those who were part of it continue in her wake.
While it is true that in Amy Winehouse’s death there is no culprit other than addiction, there are two men whose stories explain her descent into hell or, at least, her broken heart. The first is her father, who abandoned her when she was 9 and returned to her life at 16, when her career was starting. “The lost opportunity for her to rehabilitate was in 2005. The paparazzi weren’t following her yet, but her father said she didn’t need it,” explains the intimate and heartbreaking documentary Amy (2015), directed by Asif Kapadia. In fact, the singer herself confirmed it in her acclaimed single Rehab: “I ain’t got the time, and if my daddy thinks I’m fine…” (I don’t have time, and if my daddy says I’m fine…).
Mitch Winehouse continues today to live off the memory of his daughter. The lawsuit he filed in 2013 against Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay for selling some of the singer’s belongings failed this April in favor of her friends. As if that weren’t enough, Winehouse has stated in several interviews that he talks to his daughter’s spirit. But for better or worse, Amy’s father has helped keep her legacy alive. In 2023, he published the singer’s diaries, giving the public the opportunity to get to know her a little better.
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But if there is one name linked to the queen of soul, it is the one the artist had tattooed on her left chest, over a pocket, as if keeping her heart safe. Blake Fielder-Civil was her great love and also the one with whom she entered the world of drugs. Their passionate and destructive relationship inspired Back to Black, and their breakup plunged the singer into depression. After her death, Fielder was singled out for the “bad influence” he had on her, disappearing from public life after serving time in prison.
I’m clean and I think she would be happy”
Blake Fielder-Civil
Amy Winehouse’s ex-husband
This March, the former music producer gave his first interview and stated that he does not feel responsible for the singer’s death. “We were young addicts. We weren’t at first, then we were, and that can happen to anyone,” he said on the podcast We Need To Talk.
Currently, Fielder is a father of two children and leads a drug-free life in Leeds. “I’m clean and I think she would be happy,” he emphasized. Despite the tragic outcome, Amy Winehouse’s mark is indelible because she was, like her lyrics, inimitable. The rebellious pin-up girl of the 2000s who became an icon.
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