Amy

---

These are the only

three people left.

This is Mr. Alex Steele,

Mrs. Juliette Ashby,

- Mrs. Amy Winehouse.

- Ah, my booby.

In other words,

Mrs. Amy Winehouse.

And everyone else is gone.

D'you want a lick

of the lollipop?

Come on, have a lick.

- No, I don't.

- Have a lick. Come here.

Come and have a lick.

No one wants to lick

your slobbery lollipop.

- Lauren, just lick it.

- Here's me.

It's my 14th...

birthday evening and party.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Lauren

Happy birthday...

To... you

Oh, wow.

Moon River wider than a mile

I'm crossing you in style...

I was singing

with a little jazz unit,

the National Youth

Jazz Orchestra,

must've been about 16,

and I just loved jazz.

Dinah Washington...

Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett.

I learned to sing from listening

to stuff like Monk,

and a lot of soloists as well,

rather than just listening

to singers.

I learned from everything,

really.

...same rainbow's end

Waiting round the bend

My Huckleberry friend

Moon River

And me

So singing has always been

important to me,

but I never thought, "I love

singing, I'll be a singer."

I just thought, "I'm lucky"

there is something

I can always do, if I want to.

"I'm so lucky like that."

But I didn't think

it would be a career choice.

And me

Moon River and me

What's the date?

- Today?

- 24th.

- Is it?

- Yeah.

- The what?

- 24th.

- Of what?

- January.

And, um, what day is it?

- Saturday.

- And what year is it?

Lunchtime.

I was a 19-year-old

office junior

for a promotions company

owned by Simon Fuller.

I just started to try

and kind of blag it myself

as a talent scout.

I was definitely

out of my depth.

My friend Tyler

is a singer.

He was with Nicky Shymansky

and Tyler said,

"My friend Amy sings jazz

and she's great."

Nicky said to me,

"Want some studio time?"

I said, "For what?"

And he was like,

"Well, if you'd write songs,

we'd make a record,

get a record deal."

I was, like,

"What do you get out of it?"

Hello.

I look ugly.

Yeah, look at you.

You look lovely.

I don't. My chin's massive.

- Worried about your chin?

- That's there forever.

There is no greater thrill

Than what you bring to me

No sweeter song

Than what you sing

Sing to me

- Decide to record it?

- Yeah.

Hello.

I'm just here... smoking a fag.

I just like to...

Oh, I look so grim.

I look like a floating head.

You know, I've got no hair.

I'm just on a black screen.

There's my hand.

What's going on?

We'd recorded

quite a few demo recordings,

and I started to talk about

whether she'd ever consider

writing.

She said she's not sure

about writing songs,

but she's written

a lot of poems.

And he's my life

She knew full well

she'd been writing songs,

but they were very

personal songs.

I wouldn't write anything

unless it was directly personal

to me,

just 'cause I wouldn't be able

to tell the story right

because I wouldn't have done it.

Even though some of it

is personal in a sad way,

I'd never let it just be that.

I'll always put a punchline

in the song.

Just try and be different

with my lyrics.

Someone gave me a CD, two songs,

and they weren't necessarily

what you'd call hit songs,

but they conveyed an emotion

that just touched me.

When you have that as an artist,

you usually have

a story to tell behind it.

But it's a big leap of faith.

I think my boss

even questioned the deal,

because we were really

committing to giving

an unsigned artist

close to 250,000 pounds.

We both knew we wanted

to live with each other,

we both knew

we wanted to move out.

She had family issues

and I had lots of things

going on with my family,

and we looked after each other.

It was amazing.

We were young kids

and we were best friends,

in a flat on our own.

She loved it.

Juliette would sing,

Amy would sing...

And we just used

to see each other all the time.

We used to go

to so many gigs with Amy.

And when she first started

doing her music,

we were all so excited

and proud of it.

Where are we, Amy?

- We're in Brighton.

- Yeah, but what are we in now?

Um, we're in, uh...

What's-it Square,

Regency Square, in a black cab.

In a white cab. A beautiful cab.

- And Lauren's with us.

- Ah!

D'you know what my favourite

thing about Nicky is?

His legs.

Aw.

Know what my other

favourite thing is?

- What?

- Not your hair.

She could make you feel

so important...

and then, all of a sudden,

very unimportant.

And then make you feel

so important again.

That was what she did.

She liked to get people

into a comfortable position

and then shock them.

If I got my hair right,

then what would that mean?

That would mean

you were ready to marry me.

Her first relationship

was with an older guy

called Chris.

She really got the hots for him.

Madly in love with him.

She wrote a few songs

about having the hots for him.

And then, eventually,

she lost interest and...

She always used to talk about it

and started writing about that.

I think when I was growing up,

the music that was

in the pop charts or, you know,

the music that was...

that people were releasing

at the time,

I just thought,

"This isn't music,"

this is watered down,

or this is, you know, just crap,

someone else has written it

for you

"and you have to sing it."

It's very much the case

with some music today.

I really started writing music

just as... to challenge myself,

to see what I could write or,

you know,

just because

there was nothing else there

that I could listen to

at the time.

And having listened to jazz

and, you know, great songwriters

like James Taylor

and Carole King,

it was very...

I felt like I had nothing new

that was coming out at the time

that really represented me

or the way I felt.

So I just started writing,

really, my own stuff

and from personal experience.

This is, um,

I Heard Love is Blind.

I'll just clip, clip my hair

out of the way, 'cause

it's gonna get on my nerves.

I remember thinking,

when she walked in,

she was this complete

force of nature.

I thought, "Wow,

there's something about you."

And I remember thinking,

"Please be good."

I wrote this in Miami with

a guy called Salaam and, um...

- and I'm really proud of it.

- She was 18

and she was a very classic

North London Jewish girl.

A lot of attitude.

Quite shy, but something

emanated from her.

She had a charisma.

When you looked

at her lyrical capability

and her melodic capability,

she was a very old soul

in a very young body.

And we did the deal

very, very quickly.

Amy's album came out yesterday

and how many has it sold so far?

A pretty staggering 800,

actually.

That is at least...

I've emptied my bank account

buying 600 of them.

That is, at least half my

friends have bought the album.

Bastards. I'd better call

the other half up today.

Snug in a rug.

She's going to get annoyed.

Amy?

Explain what your little hub

is all about.

- Hello. Oh, you're coming.

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