10 years after Amy Winehouse passed away, her legacy lives on

By Raúl Bobé

London, Jul 22 (EFE).- On July 23, 2011, Amy Winehouse passed away at 27 years old, at the climax of her artistic career, but her legacy continues to roar across the London borough of Camden 10 years later.

Amy Jade Winehouse was born in 1983, her father was a taxi driver, her mother a pharmacist, and many in her family had a long-running bond with jazz music, one that little Amy seemed destined to pick up as well.

Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett or The Ronettes were some of the artists orchestrating her childhood.

Shortly after her parents’ divorce when she was nine years old, her first dabbles in music came to be, notably with the Sweet ‘n Sour duet with lifelong friend Juliette Ashby.

Ashby still speaks in the present tense when she refers to her “sister” Amy, who she describes as a woman “unique in her style, fun to no end, and very intelligent.”

Their bond was so strong, she says, they would know what was going through each other’s minds with nothing but a look.

In 2000, Winehouse was already the featured female vocalist of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and her solo career took flight in 2003 with her first record deal and the launch of her debut album Frank.

Camden pubs were particularly important to Winehouse. That is where she grew as an artist, and where she met and fell in love with Blake Fielder-Civil, who ended up cheating on her.

After their break-up, she had to deal with depression and eating disorders, as she worked on what would become her chef-d’oeuvre Back to Black (2006), which earned her five Grammy awards.