Amy Winehouse’s Death Anniversary Brings More Reasons And Regrets From Those Close To Her

Amy Winehouse’s death was one of music’s great modern tragedies. She was the last great talent of this generation to leave early. She had a voice that channeled music’s greatest female vocalists of the jazz era, and that made the last interview before she died ever more poignant. She was in the midst of a recording session with music great Tony Bennett, displaying the talent, shyness, and personal instability that characterized her career.

Amy died of alcohol poisoning. Although she had earlier been a heroin addict, she was believed to have been free of that addiction. Her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil spoke to her shortly before her death, and believes that she purposely drank herself to death. He recalled some troubling phone calls with Amy, and believes he should have been more sensitive to the situation.

Blake told The Sun his view on Amy Winehouse’s death.

“Each and every person close to Amy, including me, deserves a share of blame.”

He explained what he meant by the people around Amy not really reaching out to help her enough. He further clarified what the situation was back then to The Sun.

“After years of drinking she must have known she was drinking far beyond what she could handle. Maybe she expected someone to come in and stop her, take the bottle away. But instead she was left alone to drink herself to death in that house. The people around her were so busy celebrating our divorce and her giving up her heroin habit that they didn’t see how much work still had to be done.”

A year earlier a movie was released about the life of Amy, titled Amy. The movie did extraordinarily well, achieving great milestones in British documentary filmmaking. It also revealed the unfortunate problem with drugs that Amy had throughout her short life, and why it would eventually lead to her death. The documentary was directed by Asif Kapadia, who was surprised at how good the feedback was. The main critic of the documentary was Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse. After helping make the film, he later wasn’t happy with his depiction and threatened to seek legal action.

As for this year, a concert will be held in Amy’s honor. To remember Amy Winehouse’s death and celebrate her life and music, fans will gather at the Pizza Express Jazz Club located in Soho, London. The concert will take place on Sunday. Proceeds from the performance will benefit the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which helps young people to overcome substance abuse addictions. The foundation was set up by Winehouse’s father, stepfather, and mother, after her death.

Even through the turmoil that followed Winehouse throughout her career, music, not drugs and alcohol, was still her first love. She told The Telegraph how she conquered her trademark nervousness when getting ready to sing.

“You know what it’s like? I don’t mean to be sentimental or soppy but it’s a little bit like being in love, when you can’t eat, you’re restless, it’s like that. But then the minute you go on stage, everything’s OK. The minute you start singing.”

Amy only produced two studio albums during her career and was on track for a third one before the tragedy. There was also the Lioness: Hidden Treasures collection, released not long after her death. As Rolling Stone reports, some of Amy Winehouse’s songs that were never officially released have floated around the internet despite the record label claiming they had destroyed any preparatory recordings for the third studio album.

Amy Winehouse’s death, having taken place at 27-years-old, puts her among many great recording artists. When musicians die young, somehow 27 is the number they go out on. Everyone from Kurt Cobain, to Janis Joplin, to Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, and more, all suffered some kind of tragedy leading to death at 27.

On this fifth anniversary of Amy Winehouse’s death, the world of music grieves, but also celebrates a rare talent.

[Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images]