Music History: Amy Winehouse Dies At 27, On July 23, 2011

2011 – Amy Winehouse dies in London of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.

Originally signed as a teenage jazz singer, Winehouse shot to international fame with her 2006 Mark Ronson-produced album Back to Black. Propelled by the hits “Rehab” and “Valerie,” the album won five Grammy awards. Her vocal style and mannerisms inspired a generation of British female singers including Adele, who cites her as having paved the way for British music artists. However Winehouse’s musical success was overshadowed by her personal life, as her talent is squandered in a descent into the depths of drug addiction.

Winehouse was a famously hard-living star, and had been struggling with alcohol and drug addiction for a number of years. As far back as promotional appearances in support of her 2003 debut album Frank, she had often been too drunk to sing at shows and TV appearances. Her tumultuous on-off relationship with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil led her to the London underworld of hard drugs, and she started showing up in the newspapers more and more regularly – looking emaciated and unkempt.

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In 2007 she was admitted to the hospital after one fateful London pub crawl ended in her overdosing on a mixture of alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and ketamine. She entered rehab for the first time in 2008 when a tabloid newspaper published a video of her smoking crack cocaine. Despite several more stints, she never fully recovered, and her drug problems rapidly worsened.

Winehouse’s death revives interest in the “27 Club,” the group of famous musicians and singers who died at the age of 27. Other “members” include Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Jim Morriso.