FACTBOX: The life and times of Amy Winehouse

source: reuters.com

LONDON - British singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in north London, Sky News reported on Saturday. She was 27.

Here are some details about her life:

EARLY LIFE:
-- Amy Winehouse was born on Sept. 14 1983 to a Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians.
-- She was discovered by soul singer Tyler James at the age of 16 and in 2003 her debut album "Frank" was released, to general acclaim.
-- Her second album "Back to Black" was released in October 2006 and reached the No.1 spot.

MIXED FORTUNES:
-- The album's hit single "Rehab," with the prescient line: "They tried to make me go to rehab. I said 'no, no, no'" has been called the anthem of celebrity trash culture.
-- In October 2007, she and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil were arrested at a Norwegian hotel for marijuana possession, and soon afterward fans booed her on stage as she slurred her way through her gigs.They divorced in 2009.
-- Two months later she was photographed wandering barefoot on a London street, wearing only jeans and a bra and looking confused.
-- Despite being refused entrance to the United States, Winehouse won five Grammy awards in February 2008.
-- April 2008 saw her with mixed fortunes. She was nominated three times for the Ivor Novello awards in May and joined the elite ranks of music millionaires in the Sunday Times rich list with an estimated fortune of 10 million pounds ($16.3 million).
-- In 2010, she pleaded guilty to common assault and public order charges at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court. Winehouse had assaulted theatre manager Richard Pound after disrupting a performance of "Cinderella" at the Milton Keynes Theatre in central England on Dec. 19. She was arrested four days later.
-- In 2011, it was announced the on-again, off-again follow-up to Winehouse's seminal "Back to Black" album of 2006 could be on again. Recent sightings of her looking healthier after a trip to Brazil in January 2011 did raise hopes of a new release in 2011.
-- Also in 2011 she had been slated to sing with Tony Bennett and a laundry list of pop stars on "Tony Bennett: Duets II," the follow-up to his 2006 release "Duets: An American Classic."
-- For Winehouse, who had released scant material since her 2006 breakout "Back to Black," the duet would have been her first recorded appearance since her cover of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" for Quincy Jones' compilation "Q: Soul Bossa Nostra" in 2010.
-- The British singer performed "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," a song from the 1934 film "Moulin Rouge" that has been covered most famously by Bennett, at one of her Brazil tour dates in January 2011.

* CANCELLED TOUR:
-- In June 2011, Winehouse cancelled all her scheduled concerts after she was jeered by fans in Serbia recently for a shambolic performance.
-- Winehouse sporting her trademark beehive hairdo and figure-hugging dress, struggled to perform her songs and keep her balance at the gig in the Serbian capital Belgrade, and on some tunes the audience did most of the singing.
-- The news was a major setback for the artist and her entourage. At the start of last month she had checked out of a rehab clinic and confidently looked forward to her upcoming tour. -- Reuters

source: reuters.com