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Amy-Jade Winehouse (September 14,
1982) is a six-time Grammy Award-nominated British soul, jazz
singer. Her debut album, Frank (released in 2003) was nominated for
the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 album Back to Black led to six Grammy
Award nominations including the big 4 for Best New Artist, Album of
the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She won the Ivor
Novello Award in 2004 for her debut single "Stronger than Me" and
again in May 2007 for the first single "Rehab" from her 2006 album
Back to Black. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best
British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British
Album. On 17 July, Back to Black was announced as one of the 12
albums on the 2007 shortlist of Mercury Prize nominees and later
that year she was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards and
"Mejor artista nuevo internacional" or "best international new
artist" in Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica.
The singer's bulimia as
well as her drug and alcohol problems became regular tabloid news in
2007.
Personal Life
Since her rise to fame, Winehouse has been the subject of much
media attention. On 18 May 2007, she married on-off boyfriend Blake
Fielder-Civil in a secret ceremony in Miami, Florida. The marriage
came as a surprise to fans and even family as the two had split two
years earlier, the break-up inspiring several of the songs on Back
to Black.
Quickly, however, the couple began to be embroiled in a series of
scandalous incidents. In various interviews, Winehouse has denied
having bipolar disorder but has admitted to having problems with
eating disorders and self-harm. She has attributed these problems to
insecurities about her appearance. In August 2007, they entered a
rehab facility, and she canceled a number of shows in the UK and
Europe, citing exhaustion and ill health. However, they left after
just five days-to her family's dismay. Her father subsequently
voiced concerns that his daughter and her husband would at some
point "reach rock bottom". The singer's parents-in-law also made
their fears public, and urged fans and the industry to boycott her
music in an attempt to halt her decline. In a separate interview,
her mother-in-law said she was worried that Amy and Blake had become
so inseparable that if one were to commit suicide, the other would
follow.
In October 2007, Winehouse and her husband were arrested in
Norway for possession of marijuana. The couple were later released
and fined 3850 Norwegian kroner (around £350). The singer claims she
was "duped" into confessing to possession of illegal drugs and vowed
to fight the United States ban on her travel there triggered by the
arrest. Also during this period the singer and her husband were
photographed bloodied and bruised in the streets of London after a
hotel room fight allegedly started when, according to the singer as
quoted by a tabloid newspaper, she was spotted by her husband doing
drugs with a call girl.
Her husband was one of five men arrested on 9 November 2007 on a
charge of trying to pervert the course of justice in relation to an
alleged assault on a bartender in June 2007. He was denied bail and
remained in custody, pending investigations until at least the 18
January. Reports state that there is no suggestion Winehouse is
involved.
/images of the singer outside her home in London in the early
hours of the 2 December barefoot and wearing only a bra and jeans
appeared on the internet and in some tabloid newspapers. In a
statement her spokesman blamed paparazzi harassment for the incident
and said: "The constant bombardment by certain agency photographers
at her home has increased anxiety and caused disturbance." and that
the singer "has been under the care of physicians due to physical
and emotional strain". Winehouse, who has previously admitted to
using heroin, is believed to be having medical treatment for drug
problems.
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