Amy

These are the only three people left.

This is Mr. Alex Steele, Mrs. Juliette Ashby,

- Mrs. Amy Winehouse. - Ah, my booby.

In other words, Mrs. Amy Winehouse.

And everyone else is gone.

D'you want a lick of the lollipop?

Come on, have a lick.

- No, I don't. - Have a lick. Come here.

Come and have a lick.

No one wants to lick your slobbery lollipop.

- Lauren, just lick it. - Here's me.

It's my 14th...

...birthday evening and party.

Oh, wow.

I was singing with a little jazz unit,

the National Youth Jazz Orchestra,

must've been about 16,

and I just loved jazz.

Dinah Washington...

Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett.

I learned to sing from listening to stuff like Monk,

and a lot of soloists as well,

rather than just listening to singers.

I learned from everything, really.

So singing has always been important to me,

but I never thought, "I love singing, I'll be a singer."

I just thought, "I'm lucky

there is something I can always do, if I want to.

I'm so lucky like that."

But I didn't think it would be a career choice.

What's the date?

- Today? - 24th.

- Is it? - Yeah.

- The what? - 24th.

- Of what? - January.

And, um, what day is it?

- Saturday. - And what year is it?

Lunchtime.

I was a 19-year-old office junior

for a promotions company

owned by Simon Fuller.

I just started to try and kind of blag it myself

as a talent scout.

I was definitely out of my depth.

My friend Tyler is a singer.

He was with Nicky Shymansky and Tyler said,

"My friend Amy sings jazz and she's great."

Nicky said to me, "Want some studio time?"

I said, "For what?" And he was like,

"Well, if you'd write songs,

we'd make a record, get a record deal."

I was, like, "What do you get out of it?"

Hello.

I look ugly.

Yeah, look at you. You look lovely.

I don't. My chin's massive.

- Worried about your chin? - That's there forever.

- Decide to record it? - Yeah.

Hello.

I'm just here... smoking a fag.

I just like to... Oh, I look so grim.

I look like a floating head. You know, I've got no hair.

I'm just on a black screen.

There's my hand. What's going on?

We'd recorded quite a few demo recordings,

and I started to talk about

whether she'd ever consider writing.

She said she's not sure about writing songs,

but she's written a lot of poems.

She knew full well she'd been writing songs,

but they were very personal songs.

I wouldn't write anything

unless it was directly personal to me,

just 'cause I wouldn't be able to tell the story right

because I wouldn't have done it.

Even though some of it is personal in a sad way,

I'd never let it just be that.

I'll always put a punchline in the song.

Just try and be different with my lyrics.

Someone gave me a CD, two songs,

and they weren't necessarily what you'd call hit songs,

but they conveyed an emotion that just touched me.

When you have that as an artist,

you usually have a story to tell behind it.

But it's a big leap of faith.

I think my boss even questioned the deal,

because we were really committing to giving

an unsigned artist close to 250,000 pounds.

We both knew we wanted to live with each other,

we both knew we wanted to move out.

She had family issues and I had lots of things

going on with my family, and we looked after each other.

It was amazing. We were young kids

and we were best friends, in a flat on our own.

She loved it.

Juliette would sing, Amy would sing...

And we just used to see each other all the time.

We used to go to so many gigs with Amy.

And when she first started doing her music,

we were all so excited and proud of it.

Where are we, Amy?

- We're in Brighton. - Yeah, but what are we in now?

Um, we're in, uh... What's-it Square,

Regency Square, in a black cab.

In a white cab. A beautiful cab.

- And Lauren's with us. - Ah!

D'you know what my favourite thing about Nicky is?

His legs.

Aw.

Know what my other favourite thing is?

- What? - Not your hair.

She could make you feel so important...

and then, all of a sudden,

very unimportant.

And then make you feel so important again.

That was what she did. She liked to get people

into a comfortable position and then shock them.

If I got my hair right, then what would that mean?

That would mean you were ready to marry me.

Her first relationship

was with an older guy called Chris.

She really got the hots for him. Madly in love with him.

She wrote a few songs about having the hots for him.

And then, eventually, she lost interest and...

She always used to talk about it and started writing about that.

I think when I was growing up,

the music that was in the pop charts or, you know,

the music that was...

that people were releasing at the time,

I just thought, "This isn't music,

this is watered down, or this is, you know, just crap,

someone else has written it for you

and you have to sing it."

It's very much the case with some music today.

I really started writing music just as... to challenge myself,

to see what I could write or, you know,

just because there was nothing else there

that I could listen to at the time.

And having listened to jazz and, you know, great songwriters

like James Taylor and Carole King,

it was very... I felt like I had nothing new

that was coming out at the time

that really represented me or the way I felt.

So I just started writing, really, my own stuff

and from personal experience.

This is, um, I Heard Love is Blind.

I'll just clip, clip my hair

out of the way, 'cause it's gonna get on my nerves.

I remember thinking, when she walked in,

she was this complete force of nature.

I thought, "Wow, there's something about you."

And I remember thinking, "Please be good."

I wrote this in Miami with a guy called Salaam and, um...

- and I'm really proud of it. - She was 18

and she was a very classic North London Jewish girl.

A lot of attitude.

Quite shy, but something emanated from her.

She had a charisma.

When you looked at her lyrical capability

and her melodic capability,

she was a very old soul in a very young body.

And we did the deal very, very quickly.

Amy's album came out yesterday and how many has it sold so far?

A pretty staggering 800, actually.

That is at least...

I've emptied my bank account buying 600 of them.

That is, at least half my friends have bought the album.

Bastards. I'd better call the other half up today.

Snug in a rug.

She's going to get annoyed.

Amy?

Explain what your little hub is all about.

- Hello. Oh, you're coming. - Sleeping!

Just give us a smile, then we can turn the camera off.

Come on, just give us a quick one. A one-second flash.

How big do you think you're going to be?

I don't, at all, because, you know,

my music is not on that scale. The music is not on that scale.

Sometimes I wish it was,

but I don't think I'm gonna be at all famous.

I don't think I could handle it.

I'd probably go mad.

You know what I mean? I would go mad.

- Where are we going? - We're going to Birmingham!

Why are we going to Birmingham?

We're going to Birmingham to sing songs.

- Yeah? - And make merry.

Oh, that was sick! That was sick!

- Get me, get me. - Nicky, that was beautiful.

What are your thoughts on how beautiful that was?

My turn, my turn!

Wait, let me get a really good shot.

Oh, what a shot.

Oh!

She don't even care.