Amy Winehouse

Early life

Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 at Chase Farm Hospital in Gordon Hill, Enfield, to Jewish parents.^[3] Her father, Mitchell "Mitch" Winehouse, was a window panel installer^[4] and taxi driver; her mother, Janis Winehouse (née Seaton),^[5] was a pharmacist.^[6] Her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003.^[7] Winehouse's great-great-grandfather Harris Winehouse emigrated from Minsk, Belarus, to London in 1891.^[8] She had an older brother, Alex (born 1979).^[9] The family lived in London's Southgate area,^[3] where she attended Osidge Primary School and then secondary at Ashmole School.^[10][11] Winehouse attended a Jewish Sunday school while she was a child.^[12] During an interview following her rise to fame, she expressed her dismissal towards the school by saying that she used to beg her father to permit her not to go and that she learned nothing about being Jewish by going anyway.^[13] In the same interview, Winehouse said she only went to a synagogue once a year on Yom Kippur "out of respect".^[12]


Many of Winehouse's maternal uncles were professional jazz musicians.^[14] Amy's paternal grandmother, Cynthia, had been a singer and had dated the English jazz saxophonist Ronnie Scott.^[15] She and Amy's parents influenced Amy's interest in jazz.^[15] Her father, Mitch, often sang Frank Sinatra songs to her, and whenever she was chastised at school, she would sing "Fly Me to the Moon" before going up to the headmistress to be told off.^[16] Winehouse's parents separated when she was nine,^[17] and she lived with her mother in Whetstone, London and stayed with her father and his girlfriend in Hatfield Heath, Essex on weekends.^[18]


In 1992, her grandmother Cynthia suggested that Amy attend the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, where she went on Saturdays to further her vocal education and to learn to tap dance.^[19][20] She attended the school for four years and founded a short-lived rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour, with Juliette Ashby, her childhood friend,^[21] before seeking full-time training at Sylvia Young Theatre School.^[22] Several years later it was reported that Winehouse had been expelled at 14 for "not applying herself" and also for piercing her nose,^[9][23] but these claims were denied by Sylvia Young: "She changed schools at 15...I've heard it said she was expelled; she wasn't. I'd never have expelled Amy."^[24] Mitch Winehouse also denied the claims.^[4] An English teacher at the Sylvia Young Theatre School remembered Amy as a gifted writer, predicting that she would become a novelist or journalist.^[25] She attended the Mount School, Mill Hill and the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon, dropping out at age 16.^[26][27]


After toying around with her brother Alex's guitar, Winehouse bought her own guitar when she was 14 and began writing music shortly afterwards. Soon after, she began working for a living as an entertainment journalist for the World Entertainment News Network and also singing with local group the Bolsha Band.^[9][28] In July 2000, she became the featured female vocalist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At home she learned from and practised singing songs by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Minnie Ripperton—singers who she said "will get under the song" and remake it as their own rather than sing it straight as written.^[28] Winehouse's best friend, soul singer Tyler James, sent her demo tape to an A&R person.^[15]