The demo Amy Winehouse recorded at 17 to attract record labels has been released online.
Amy was known for her rare singing talent, as well as her struggle with alcohol and drug dependency, which led to her untimely death from alcohol poisoning on 23 July 2011 at the age of 27.
And while the the late songstress’ demos were mostly destroyed after her passing, composer Gil Cang has offered another snippet into her talented early years by releasing her recording of the tune My Own Way to YouTube.
Talented: The demo Amy Winehouse recorded at 17 to attract record labels has been released online
Amy rose to fame with her first album, Frank, in 2003, but it was the arrival of her second album, Back to Black, in 2006, which catapulted the shy singer into her status as an international phenomenon.
She won a then-record five Grammy’s at the 2007 annual awards ceremony including Best Pop Vocal Album for Back to Black and Song of the Year for Rehab.
But Amy started from humble beginnings, which is evident from the tune Gil uploaded to YouTube – a recording Amy used to lure in record labels as a teenager.
Speaking before the time Winehouse was signed onto Island Records in 2003, Gil told Camden New Journal: ‘We’d been writing quite a lot of pop tunes, doing a lot of pop promos with various artists who would come in, many of various, dubious talent. It was at a particularly dire time in the pop world – lots of terrible, terrible girl bands and boy bands and we had to make something for them.
‘She blew us away’: While the the late songstress’ demos were mostly destroyed after her passing, composer Gil Cang has released her recording of the tune My Own Way to YouTube
Tragic: Amy was known for her rare singing talent, as well as her struggle with alcohol and drug dependency, which led to her untimely death from alcohol poisoning on 23 July 2011
‘Amy came in to see us, opened her mouth and just blew us all away. We were struck immediately by her talent – it was a real jaw on the floor moment. We were like wow, yes,’ Cang recalled.
After Amy passed away in 2011, an album of B-sides and covers entitled Lioness: Hidden Treasures was released by Universal – but was not well received by audiences.
Universal UK CEO David Joseph destroyed the rest of Amy’s demos – telling the Guardian in 2015 that it ‘ was a moral thing.’
And speaking about his decision to upload Amy’s My Own Way to the internet, he revealed: ‘I’ve had it knocking about for so long. I found it again last week and thought – I’ll put it out there so people could hear it.’
Amy was a celebrated singer but faced a fair few difficulties in her personal life. In the last interview she gave before her death in 2011, Amy opened up about the debilitating nerves she faced ahead of live performances.
Star in the making: Amy started from humble beginnings, which is evident from the tune Gil uploaded to YouTube – a recording Amy used to lure in record labels as a teenager
Slammed: After Amy passed away in 2011, an album of B-sides and covers entitled Lioness: Hidden Treasures was released by Universal – but was not well received by audiences
Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: ‘I’m not a natural born performer. I’m a natural singer, but I’m quite shy, really.
‘You know what it’s like? I don’t mean to be sentimental or soppy but its 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.’
In the month before her body was found Amy was booed off the stage in Belgrade on the opening night of her 12-leg run of European performances, after she appeared to forget the lyrics.
She cancelled the rest of the tour, which many hailed as proof she was still recovering from her crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol addictions which caused her to take so much time out of the limelight in her twenties as she went in and out of rehab.
Amy also endured a messy two-year marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil, which was fraught with substance abuse and violent rows.
‘It was a moral thing’: Universal UK CEO David Joseph destroyed the rest of Amy’s demos
‘I want people to hear it’: Gil backed his decision to upload Amy’s My Own Way to the internet
The couple married in Florida in 2007 but they were divorced in September 2009.
In an interview in 2008, her mother Janis, now in her early 60s, said she would not be surprised if her daughter died before her time. She said: ‘I’ve known for a long time that my daughter has problems.
‘But seeing it on screen rammed it home. I realise my daughter could be dead within the year. We’re watching her kill herself, slowly.
‘I’ve already come to terms with her dead. I’ve steeled myself to ask her what ground she wants to be buried in, which cemetery. Because the drugs will get her if she stays on this road.
‘I look at Heath Ledger and Britney. She’s on their path. It’s like watching a car crash – this person throwing all these gifts away.’
Turbulent: Amy also endured a messy two-year marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil, which was fraught with substance abuse and violent rows