Amy Winehouse

They tried to make me go to rehab

But I said no, no, no

("Rehab")

Amy Winehouse doesn't deserve the rhetoric we usually reach for when remembering her. In the final years of her career she was considered the ultimate bad girl of the music scene; since she passed away, she's been reappraised as the fragile soul broken by life. In truth, everything there is to know was already written in her songs: you want to send me to rehab? I won't go. "Yes, I've been a mess, but you'll know when I'm back." There's a bored, dismissive inflection in the way she sings. As if to say, "back off."

In hindsight, since that tragic 23 July 2011, it's impossible to hear these words again without a pang of sadness, just as in her final years it was hard to listen to her music without separating it from the doomed image the papers fed us every day. But everything we didn't read about in the news and gossip pages was, as far as we could tell, simply flair, exhilaration, sheer vital energy: that was Amy Winehouse when she sang.

Following the solid success in England of her debut album "Frank", a jazz-pop record that leaned more jazz than pop, the then twenty-three-year-old English singer decided to find a rockier guise for her songs. Drawing inspiration from 60s girl groups and the storied Motown catalogue, Amy Winehouse turned to the skills of producer Mark Ronson to bring out the boldest, most accessible side hidden within her music. Work on the new album proved difficult, though, mainly due to the alcohol dependency issues that began affecting Winehouse from 2005 onward, certainly not helped by the toxic relationship that tied the singer to Blake Fielder-Civil, an assistant director she met in 2003. As documented in Asif Kapadia's wonderful "Amy", the recording takes basically unfolded between one glass of whisky and coke and the next.

By the time she met Mark Ronson in March 2006, Amy already had several songs ready for the new album, including the heart-wrenching "Tears Dry On Their Own", written by Winehouse herself under the clear influence of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, later also a hit for Diana Ross. But it's thanks to Ronson's deft touch that "Back To Black" achieved the warm, seductive sound that became its fortune, with the gorgeous retro sheen and dazzling orchestral work for which it's remembered today. His arrangement work runs through "Rehab", "Love Is A Losing Game", "You Know I'm No Good", "He Can Only Hold Her" and above all the title track itself, "Back To Black", which he also co-wrote — and whose unmistakable riff, legend has it, the producer composed the very night he met the singer. Thanks to Mark Ronson, as soon became clear, Amy Winehouse found not only the sound she was looking for, but also the one the whole world had been waiting for.

Propelled by the success of "Rehab" — a song that is simply era-defining, in its writing, its ideas, its passion, its languor — "Back To Black" enjoyed excellent success in Britain and Europe right from its release. By early 2007, the time was ripe to conquer America. Winehouse first landed in the States in January, with two intimate, exclusive shows at Joe's Pub in New York (which the following year would see the debut of another future R&B diva: Adele). Both nights were a triumph, with a parade of stars waiting to greet the English singer on her arrival in the New World. Among the crowd were also two rap icons, Mos Def and Jay-Z. The genuine friendship between Amy Winehouse and these rappers is one of those things that, depending on how cerebral we want to be about it, could tell us everything and nothing about the personality of an artist like her. Amy, with real tenderness, dedicated a song on "Back To Black" to one of them: the Mr. Jones of "Me And Mr. Jones" is none other than Nas. "Nobody can get in between/ me and my friend/ it's me and Mr Jones." Amy's own words.

But if there's one song that will forever remain etched in memory, it's the one that gives the album its title. Its only flaw is having spawned thousands of minor singers who still coast on trying to recycle its allure — the feeling itself, though, they'll never find. Written to process one of the many low points of her turbulent relationship with Blake, "Back To Black" is an unrepeatable love elegy found at the bottom of a bottle. In the chorus, Amy's voice cuts through the air with the same sharp anguish as the strings accompanying her, while the syncopated piano figure creates an eerie sense of suspension.

We only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

You go back to her

And I go back to the

And I go back to black

("Back To Black")

The pairing of "Rehab" and "Back To Black" was the golden ticket to the top of every chart, making Winehouse the music world's sensation of the year. In 2007, simply no one could resist being seduced by that extraordinary, dishevelled-looking singer. At the following year's Grammys she was the undisputed star of the night, taking home five awards, including Song of the Year for "Rehab".

But leaving aside two such powerful singles, the album's masterpiece remains "You Know I'm No Good", where the vibrant electric guitar work, combined with the horn counterpoint, paints the perfect backdrop that lets Amy show every color of her voice, revealing it as supple, neurotic, playful, aching when needed. Spilling truths like glasses of gin: "I told you I was trouble/ you know that I'm no good".

To be fair, "Back To Black" does contain its share of filler, average songs that today have certainly aged better than anyone could have expected. Sure, that's the notorious benefit of hindsight, but these were still Amy Winehouse's last recordings, after all. And do let us know when one of the many artists who came after her – say, Celeste – writes a "Just Friends" or a "Wake Up Alone".

But beyond its posthumous acclaim, the record also contains the aforementioned "Tears Dry On Their Own" and the heartbreaking "Love Is A Losing Game", sung with the shy sweetness of a piano-bar singer frightened by her own talent, which, together with the three gems mentioned earlier, make up the golden quintet that cements this album's place among the records you simply must own and cherish.

Will "Back To Black" be remembered as one of the greatest jazz albums of the last few decades? No, but it's an absolute landmark of pop. If the staggering sales weren't proof enough, the reason is right there to hear: one of the greatest singers of her generation, perhaps the most talented of all, sings herself without inhibition or filter, taking on, across ten songs, the guise of the great diva she dreamed of becoming — and briefly, for a few fleeting moments, actually was.

Amy Winehouse passed away exactly ten years ago, brought down by the demons that had tormented her for years and that ultimately won out. There's a recording of her very last concert that's heartbreaking to watch, it's so disastrous. Just over a month later, she was gone. That day, we learned the sad ending of an intense and troubled story. But from that day on, we've had every reason to be grateful that story happened at all, that it was recorded, ready to be shared, passed down, relived. Ten years on, and forever from here, the voice of Amy Winehouse, rest her soul, will keep on living every time it's heard.

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25/07/2021