New Single From Brit WinnerA tapestry of undeniable brilliance. Its sex drugs and rocknsoul with no rehab and no equals in sight. Stunning future soul. NME"This is simply an astonishing record" - The Independenta preternatural voice so full of soul power the voice of 2007 theres none better MOJO ****Fresh from her triumphant performance at the Brits where she picked up the British Female Solo Artist award, Amy Winehouse has her much anticipated new single, Back To Black, released on April 16th through Island Records. The single is the title track from Amys stunning album Back To Black, which this week re-gained the no. 1 slot, and looks set to go triple platinum in a matter of weeks with sales fast approaching the 900,000 mark. Amy is currently in the middle of her sell-out UK tour which will be followed by her first ever US tour. The American dates kick off with a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City where Amy will also mark her US television debut with a performance on the David Letterman Show.
Its been a fantastic few months for Amy since the release, at the end of October 06, of her anthemic single Rehab. Rehab entered the chart at no. 7 and was followed by Back To Black which was released to universal acclaim and finished the year topping many end of year polls.
A second single, You Know Im No Good, featuring Ghostface Killah, was released in January and gave Amy her second big hit. Two Brit nominations, a South Bank Show award and an Elle Style award followed before Amy scooped the British Best Female last week at Earls Court.
Amys live shows feature songs drawn from her platinum debut Frank and Back To Black. Frank established Amy as one of the most exciting and challenging artists in pop music, and Back To Black proves, beyond any reasonable or unreasonable doubt, what a truly remarkable talent she is. Winehouses song-writing and fearlessness as a lyric writer has been grafted onto some of the most astonishing material of her short career so far. Back To Black sees her teaming up once again with Frank producer Salaam Remi and, for the first time, with New Yorker Mark Ronson (Lily Allen, Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera).
Two years ago, following the success of Frank, Amy began thinking about what shed like to do with her second record. Frank was her grand and suitably blunt-speaking break-up record, and it won her a battalion of fans around the world, marking her out as one of the most distinct new voices in pop; confessional, elemental and with that rarest of combinations: humour and soul. I didnt want to play the jazz thing up too much again. I was bored of complicated chord structures and needed something more direct. Id been listening to a lot of girl-groups from the fifties and sixties. I liked the simplicity of that stuff.
It just gets to the point. You can hear it on the subtley Supremes-referencing intro of Back To Black. But her reach stretches further. While the girl-groups of the sixties to which she had become enthralled contained their vocals, Amy can break loose with Aretha-style vocal stylings on Just Friends or by turning the whole idea of drying out into a gospel spiritual on the stunning opener Rehab.
Love is a Losing Game is pure classic modern song-writing: brief, to the point and drenched in emotion. Other highlights include the Nas inspired Me and Mr Jones, the beautiful Wake Up Alone, Im No Good, the personal epiphany that you can behave just as badly as all those guys that have messed you around and stamped all over you, and the bluesy smooch of the title track, Back To Black.Amy Winehouse