Many Amy Jade Winehouse’s relatives were professional jazz performers and her grandmother was fond of her memories about the relationships with the British jazz icon Ronnie Scott. Her parents were Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra fans.
At the age of 11 Amy Winehouse set up her own rap band and in a couple of years she played the guitar, listened to modern jazz and hip-hop with her mind open to music and soon she started writing and recording her own songs.
The first album by Amy Winehouse "Frank" was released in 2003. Most of the songs she composed herself. When the producers first heard her recordings they literally lost the power of speech. Amy Winehouse even managed to startle sophisticated jazz musicians with whom she recorded her songs – as she started singing they were dumbfounded. Everyone was shocked by quite explicit texts – like the track "Fuck Me Pumps". It is a story about young girls of twenty hanging around in bars in their search for money-bags. But the elements of jazz, pop, rhythm-and-blues and hip-hop, as well as erotic and ironic performance and fantastic voice – which was somehow similar to that of Nina Simonе, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan – made Amy Winehouse unique and attracted much publich attention. Soon Amy Winehouse appeared to be one of the Brit Awards and Mercury Music Prize nominees. She was awarded by the Ivor Novello Awards as the best modern songwriter for the song "Stronger Than Me". In 2004 her album "Frank" became platinum.
Alongside with her musical success Amy Winehouse became the press’ favourite – scandalous behavior during her performances, dubious jokes, inadequate actions, insulting fans and other howlers attracted the attention of those who was not familiar with her music.
In October 2006 her first promotion single "Rehab" was immediately included into the British top 10 chart. The album "Back to Black" was a great success and by the end of 2007 it headed the British chart. The second 50-60s style album was inspired by soul music, rhythm-and-blues and roch-n-roll of that time as well as by the creative work of female pop groups. Amy Winehouse was awarded by Вrit Award as the best solo performance and the album "Back to Black" was presented in the nomination "Best British Album". By October 25, 2007 the album became platinum in Britain and in a month it was announced the best selling album of 2007 as well as the most popular one with iTunes users.
At that time the readers of glossy magazines chose Amy Winehouse as the best British performer.
The 50th anniversary Grammy Awards ceremony took place on February 10, 2008 in Los Angeles and Amy Winehouse got 5 awards in different nominations.
She is depicted as a cat in this collection of Rock-n-Roll Cats and her famous bird's nest style hair-do is also turned into a cat which seized her head.
"Black to Black" - Farewell, Amy. Someday we will definitely see and listen to your new CD, which you had no time to perform!
Frank Zappa, American guitar player and composer, singer and performer, released more than 60 albums during his 33-year creative work and turned out to be the most productive composer of his time. He was the leader of the band "The Mothers of ...
The very first promo single by Christina Aguilera "GenieinaBottle" was heading the Billboardchart for five weeks and was awarded many times. It was the first of many hits, which often appear in different ratings. The second single became one of the ...
Jan Anderson, the great English or rather Scottish flutist, guitarist, vocalist and song writer from the great band Jethro Tull, gave a fantastic concert in Minsk, March 2009, in spite of the fact that he had broken a finger on his left hand. This ...
When a sassy young man Elvis Presley entered the studion "Sun" in July 1953 to record a song for his mother "That`s All Right, Mama" he had no idea that he was entering into a legend. Elvis’ music and style, behavior and manners were stunningly ...
Chas Chandler, bass guitarist of the band ANIMALS, brought a phenomenal American guitar player Jimi Hendrix to London in 1996. His first album "Are You Experienced?" came as a bombshell and was second in popularity after the legendary "Sgt. ...
We introduce you - the great and horrid Alice Cooper who is looking at the world through spider eyes, beheading himslf on the stage, wa has created one of the first truly brilliant rock-horror ballads Stiven and a demonic hymn of the whole ...
Janis Lyn Joplin is truly believed to be the best white blues performer and one of the greatest vocalists in the rock history. She performed blues and psychedelic rock being part of Big Brother and the Holding Company , and a bit later she set up ...
Dylan was very lucky in America: he always had the love of simple Americans as well as the love of huge record labels. But the USSR audience never warmed up to his creative work and was never interested in it, although (and that is a unique ...
The repertoire of the amazing French singer and actress Patricia Kaas is very diverse: it’s a mixture of pop music, jazz, blues elements and classical chanson. More than 17.000.000 copies of her CD have been sold since the release of the first album ...
The Tiger Lillies – is a cult British band, a crazy Brechtian cabaret boasting of an amazing legacy: 27 albums. They are a living legend and perform about 300 concerts a year all over the world. The Tiger Lillies manage somehow magically to make ...
The USSR Government never liked The Beatles, because they could never make them look bad for the people of the Soviet Union. First of all, Paul, John, George and Ringo are ordinary guys, meaning - socially close to us (unlike the millionaire Frank ...
Joe Cocker is often called the dinosaur of rock. That probably happenes due to his great contribution to the rock music. And his unforgettable roaring voice, which grabs the listeners' hearts. He have always been untameable. It is not by chance that ...
Site Cats & Dreams features a collection of posters, images, drawings and illustrations by the Belarusian artist Sergey Stelmashonok. Sergey has been illustrating articles in different newspapers and magazines for many years but his main passion is depicting cats. Each and every cat in his images is special. Take a look and enjoy.