Birth name Amy Jade Winehouse

Date of birth 14 September 1983

Star sign Virgo

Birthplace Enfield, London, UK

Height 5ft 3in

Eye colour Brown

Marriages Blake Fielder-Civil, 18 May 2007

Children None

Biography

From her signature beehive hairdo to her struggles with drugs and alcohol, award-winning jazz/soul singer Amy Winehouse is rarely out of the headlines.

Born into an English-Jewish family, Amy grew up in Southgate, North London. She won a place at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School aged 12, but was expelled just a year later for piercing her own nose, before signing a deal with Island Records at 16.

Her 2003 debut album, Frank, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but it was her 2006 follow-up, Back To Black, that propelled her to fame across the pond. Amy received six 2008 Grammy nominations for the record and won five – the first British singer to do so – as well as adding a BRIT award for Best British Female Artist of 2007.

Despite her music success, it’s Amy’s personal life that has made the news. She has admitted in various interviews to struggling with self-harm, eating disorders and depression, and hit crisis point in August 2007, when she was rushed to hospital after a drug overdose.

In May 2007 she married on-off boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil in Florida, but just four months later her new husband was arrested and jailed for conspiracy.

Amy was back in rehab in January 2008 after being caught on camera allegedly smoking crack cocaine and continues to battle her demons, with reports that a new album has been put on the back burner until 2009.

Quotes

‘I’m not really a girl. I’m not even a boy’s girl. I’m a man’s man – and that doesn’t mean I’m a big dyke.’ (The Observer, 8 October 2006)

‘We’re not planning a honeymoon. Every day is a honeymoon – I’ve married the best man in the world.’ (BBC News, 24 May 2007)

(On husband Blake)
‘We would never ever harm each other… I was cutting myself after he found me in our room about to do drugs with a call girl and rightly said I wasn’t good enough for him. I lost it and he saved my life.’ (Daily Mail, 24 August 2007)

‘I write songs because I’m f***ed in the head and need to get something good out of something bad.’ (Metro.co.uk)

‘I like pin-up girls. I’m more of a boy than a girl. I’m not a lesbian, though-not before a Sambuca anyway.’ (Now Online)