FEATURE:
You Know I’m So Good
The Amy Winehouse Biopic, Back to Black, and the Legacy of the Hugely Missed Icon
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THERE is so much out there…
IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse in 2006/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky
regarding how influential Amy Winehouse was. How she still is. What a legacy she left behind. We sadly lost the icon in 2011. On 12th April, a new film opens. Staring Marisa Abela in the lead role, Back to Black is going to be a passionate and sometimes emotional and hard-hitting biopic about the icon. It is a film you will want to see. I am going to get to some recent interview with Abela about her role as Amy Winehouse and taking on such a huge thing. I am going to end by looking at the influence and uniqueness of the much-missed Amy Winehouse. She is someone the likes of which we will never see again. Such a phenomenal talent! I am going to start with some news and reports about the Amy Winehouse biopic. NME. They highlight how director Sam Taylor-Johnson says Amy Winehouse’s family had no real involvement in the film. They did not dictate how the film was made and what needed changing:
“Named after Winehouse’s breakout sophomore – and final – studio album, the film will star Industry’s Marisa Abela as Winehouse herself, and outlines her years living in London, alongside her rapid rise to fame.
Speaking in a new interview with Empire, director Sam Taylor-Johnson said Winehouse’s family didn’t contribute to the film.
She added: “It was important to meet with them out of respect. But they have no involvement in terms of… like, they couldn’t change things. They couldn’t dictate how I was to shoot. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it.”
The director also confirmed that Winehouse’s father Mitch has seen the biopic.“I know he saw the film. I wasn’t there. I haven’t spoken to him. I think he keeps his feelings pretty much to himself. The important thing for me was not to have any of that noise in my sphere while making the film,” said Taylor-Johnson.
“And I didn’t need the family’s approval. All the music rights were approved by Universal and Sony. So what I wanted as much as possible was the truth of Amy, and Amy’s relationship was that she loved her dad, whether we think he did right or wrong.”
Writer Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated with Taylor-Johnson on Nowhere Boy, said the film wanted to tell the story from the singer’s perspective, using her lyrics.
He said: “It’s a creative film. I know a lot of people still can’t understand that, still can’t get their head around it. It’s my take on Amy’s life and then it’s Sam’s take on Amy’s life. And then it’s Marisa and Jack [O’Connell]’s take on Amy and Blake. In the end, it’s all subjective, but you hope that opinion is accepted and embraced by your audience.”
Winehouse’s parents previously stated that they approved of the film and said in a statement: “We are thrilled that StudioCanal, Focus Features and Monumental are making this movie celebrating our daughter Amy’s extraordinary music legacy and showcasing her talent in the way that it deserves.”
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film has been confirmed for release in the UK on April 12, 2024 and on April 11 across Australia”.
I am going to get to an interview with Marisa Abela soon. First, Rolling Stone noted how Abela trained like an athlete to prepare for playing Amy Winehouse. It is also impressive that Abela took vocal training so that she could sing these classic and instantly recognisable songs. Someone who put so much of herself into this role. It is testament to the passion and commitment of Marisa Abela. Someone whose performance is definitely going to take her acting career to a new level:
“ONE DOES NOT simply wake up one morning and embody Amy Winehouse. According to vocal coach Anne-Marie Speed, Back to Black star Marisa Abela trained “like an athlete”” to transform into the “Valerie” singer.
In an interview with The Guardian, Speed opened up about the process of preparing Abela to play the lead in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s upcoming biopic. The two worked together between September 2022 and January 2023, when shooting started for the film.
In those months, Abela had to learn to sing, play the guitar, master Winehouse’s accent and generally get in shape for the role. “It’s full-time preparation, it’s like an athlete,” said Speed. “People really underestimate how physical voice production can be. They don’t see it, but it really is. You’ve got to get the body working in the right way to truly support what’s happening and to produce the voice.”
Getting Abela’s voice to match one of the most instantly recognizable, soulful voices of the modern era was a challenge. “You want [the vocal performance] to be very close, but not an impression. Because otherwise, you might as well just mime to her recordings,” said Speed. “I was seeing her [Abela] four times a week for two-hour sessions for about three months before we started shooting. So it’s a big, big commitment.”
The first teaser trailer for the much anticipated biopic Back to Black was recently released by Canal Plus. The clip showcases Industry actress Marisa Abela as Winehouse, who intones, “I want to be remembered for just being me.”
The trailer also offers glimpses of Jack O’Connell as Winehouse’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, and Lesley Manville, who plays Winehouse’s grandmother, Cynthia Winehouse. It’s soundtracked by Winehouse’s 2006 song “Back to Black.”
In addition to being directed by Taylor-Johnson, Back to Black is written by Matt Greenhalgh. It also stars Eddie Marsan as Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, and Juliet Cowan as Winehouse’s mother, Janis Winehouse-Collins. It was made with support from the Amy Winehouse Estate, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing.
Winehouse, who died in 2011 following years of drug and alcohol problems, has previously been the subject of several documentaries. In 2015, Amy won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Taylor-Johnson previously said she has felt a longtime relationship to the story.
“My connection to Amy began when I left college and was hanging out in the creatively diverse London borough of Camden,” Taylor-Johnson said in a statement last year. “I got a job at the legendary KOKO club, and I can still breathe every market stall, vintage shop, and street… A few years later Amy wrote her searingly honest songs whilst living in Camden. Like with me, it became part of her DNA. I first saw her perform at a talent show at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho and it was immediately obvious she wasn’t just ’talent’… she was genius.”
When the film was first announced in 2018, it was reported that proceeds from the biopic would benefit the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, shared a statement at the time confirming her family and estate’s support. “We now feel able to celebrate Amy’s extraordinary life and talent,” he said. “And we know through the Amy Winehouse Foundation that the true story of her illness can help so many others who might be experiencing similar issues”.
I am going to focus on a great and detailed interview from Harper’s Bazaar. We get to know a lot more about Marisa Abela and how she took to playing Amy Winehouse. There are similarities between Abela and Winehouse. It is very clear that this role meant so much to her. Even if some have reacted negatively to the trailer or Abela’s resemblance to Amy Winehouse, it is clear that she embodies so much of Winehouse. An actor who has spent so much time getting it right. On 12th April (in the U.K.), we will see this transformation on the big screen:
“The more I got to know her, the more I felt a major connection to this spiky Jewish girl from London who had a lot to say, and was really quite unafraid," she says. As someone who also grew up in a Jewish household, Abela felt a kinship with her. "I remembered how I felt when I was young, seeing that woman who was proud and cool, wearing a big Star of David in between a cleavage and a nice bra. I understood what a Friday-night dinner would look like in her home, the humour in her family. I loved how effervescent she was, how huge a soul, how she just permeated any room she was in. But also, her relationship to her art form, and wanting to be good. That was the most important thing."
This was Abela’s starting point for getting into character: "Once I framed her in that way, I felt I was in a position to take on this role. I never wanted to trick anyone. Sometimes you audition and you say you can ride a horse, speak Spanish or sword fight, when you can’t. I was never, ever going to do that here. I was not going to put myself on the chopping block unless I knew I could do this."
So when it came to the audition, Abela was the only person who came make-up free and without Winehouse’s trademark beehive. She spotted Taylor-Johnson and Gold clasp hands as soon as she began her performance, and knew that the session had gone well.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jem Mitchell
Once the role was hers, Abela threw herself into it with almost obsessive drive. She moved to Camden for four months to immerse herself in "Amy bootcamp": working 10 hours a day with a personal trainer; singing lessons; learning to move. She physically shrank herself to mirror Winehouse, who suffered from disordered eating and an addiction to heroin and alcohol. "I had help to do it safely; I consulted a dietician and was being monitored," Abela says. "Feeling frailer and smaller helped – I hadn’t understood, before, how much that affects your tempo. During her Frank era, Amy is fast and loud and boisterous with her arms, her movements are big. Once I started to change, I realised that you can’t physically make those same movements. It’s uncomfortable to sit. You’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re more exposed."
One of the remarkable aspects of Abela’s performance is her ability to capture Winehouse’s voice; she was not originally meant to sing in the film, but ended up recording with the star’s original band. "I had no idea how close I could get to singing like Amy. But why not work as hard as I possibly could to do it?" she says. "That’s how I felt with everything: her movements; her dancing; her thought processes. How close can I get to her? How can I unravel a psychological truth that will excite people again?"
PHOTO CREDIT: Jem Mitchell
The Winehouse in the film is softer than we have seen her previously. It depicts the first time she meets her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, their relationship, and her desire to have a child. The movie also shows how witty Winehouse was. "Performing her songs sometimes felt like stand-up routines. She’s the most amazing lyricist." Abela is drawn to characters who embody huge contrasts. "Maybe the most exciting way of conveying vulnerability is finding the one place where she feels incredibly confident," she says. "Because that’s where she’ll always run to, rather than leaning into the state of being vulnerable."
She has long held the belief that self-consciousness is the enemy of good acting, and did entertain the idea of inhabiting the role at all times. "I thought, maybe I’m not going to be taken seriously if I’m not torturing myself in order to play this part. But I’m not a Method actress. I wasn’t walking around my flat as Amy. The work was enough for me."
Meanwhile, Yasmin returns to our screens in Industry season three later this year. Despite all this, Abela takes the gloss and publicity in her stride. On a normal day, she lives in her flat with her boyfriend, the actor and writer Jamie Bogyo, whom she met at Rada. "He’s smart and funny, we have a lot of fun together," she says, smiling. "He’s my best friend... and we can talk about the work... Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it hasn’t happened to me yet, but I think staying grounded is easier than people make it out to be." As her career goes stratospheric, it’s likely to be the biggest challenge she faces”.
I am going to end with an NME feature from 2021. Ten years after Amy Winehouse’s death, they collected people together to share their memories and love of Amy Winehouse. From Jake Shears to Laura Mvula, we learn why Winehouse made such an impact on others. I do not think that we will ever see anyone like her again:
“Think of the icons who have changed the shape of popular music forever, and few tower as high as Amy Winehouse and her unmistakable beehive. Breaking through in the early ‘00s like a gale-force wind that gleefully rucked up pop’s carefully-ironed tablecloth, the sharp-witted, soul-and-jazz-loving Londoner stood out in a landscape of shimmering US pop stars and perfectly choreographed girl bands. Fusing vintage sounds with her biting storytelling, Winehouse was refreshing, exciting and – above everything else – a raw and honest voice.17:34
Amy Winehouse died a decade ago this Friday (July 23), aged 27, leaving behind a huge musical legacy. Following her passing, countless artists paid tribute to an enormous talent. “Amy changed pop music forever,” Lady Gaga tweeted in 2011. “I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues.” In another post, Adele thanked Winehouse for “[paving] the way for artists like me”, adding that she “made people excited about British music again whilst being fearlessly hilarious and blase about the whole thing. I don’t think she ever realized just how brilliant she was and how important she is, but that just makes her even more charming.” The late George Michael accurately called her “the most soulful vocalist this country has ever seen.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse in 2004/PHOTO CREDIT: Ram Shergill
Now, 10 years on from her death, fans, collaborators and fellow musicians pay tribute. “I still remember the first time I heard her on the radio, I was totally hooked,” recalls Shannon, a long-time Amy Winehouse fan who became hooked on her 2003 debut album ‘Frank’ in her early teens, and went to see some of the star’s earliest headline shows. Years later, she was at V Festival with her mates when surprise guest Winehouse casually sauntered on stage to perform ‘You’re Wondering Now’ and ‘Ghost Town’ with The Specials.
Every time she watched Winehouse live was “just magic,” Shannon says, adding: “She totally allowed herself to be completely raw and vulnerable – and that voice too! She was my first proper music idol. She was just so cool, and the music blew my mind.”
That 2009 appearance with The Specials wasn’t Amy’s only unexpected link-up – she also performed with The Rolling Stones (at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2009) and Prince (in London in 2007), among others. Scissor Sisters’ lead singer and solo artist Jake Shears also recalls heading out on little-documented tour of “end-of-year college banquets” with the star early in their careers, soundtracking the dinners of a couple of hundred students each night. “I like thinking back to that time because you just just never know where everything’s going to end up – it was early days for us,” Shears tells NME. “It was such a cool time.”
A chance encounter with The Zutons’ lead singer on a night out in Winehouse’s regular stomping ground in Camden, meanwhile, led to her wildly popular cover of their staple song ‘Valerie’, which remains one of her most popular songs 14 years after its release. “Years ago I was in Camden and I was in The Hawley Arms, drinking and all that,” recalls the band’s vocalist Dave McCabe. “And then Amy Winehouse turns up”.
Though the pair had crossed paths at the Mercury Prize in 2004, they barely knew each other, and later that night, “this lad” at the pub started bad-mouthing The Zutons. “He basically started telling me how crap I was, and how great [Winehouse] was, and at the time I was like, ‘Fair enough’”. McCabe laughs. “By about the 10th time, he was just being a bit annoying. I ended up just turning around to him, and told him to fuck off. Then [Amy] turned around to me went, ‘No – you fuck off!’’
Eventually, McCabe stormed off down the road with Winehouse in hot pursuit. “She goes: ‘Come back! I really like ‘Valerie’. I’m not really arsed about you, but you must be alright ‘causes you wrote that song.’ So we worked it out, and I went back. I think if we hadn’t had that argument… That moment was very personal. I’d like to think it’s what pushed her [to record the song herself]. Maybe something good came of all of that stupid argument?” he laughs.
Along with Winehouse’s ‘Frank’ collaborator Salaam Remi, Ronson produced half of Amy Winehouse’s landmark second album, 2006’s ‘Back to Black’. Together, they made for a formidable pairing – from the parping ‘Rehab’ to the smoke-stained regret of ‘Love is a Losing Game’, they forged a pop sound that dabbled in retro influences, and would influence the entire musical landscape after the album’s release.
Though ‘Back To Black’ was Winehouse’s masterpiece, her slightly lighter debut album ‘Frank’ still established Winehouse as a fearsomely talented songwriter. ‘I Heard Love Is Blind’ finds Winehouse’s narrator bluntly defending infidelity with increasingly creative twists of logic: “Baby, you weren’t there,” she insists, “and I was thinking of you when I came”. And the matter-of-fact ‘Fuck Me Pumps’ is both biting and hilarious, meticulously mocking a woman and her garish shoes.
“Her legacy is beyond comprehension,” singer-songwriter Laura Mvula tells NME. “I think people will still be unfolding it for decades to come.” The Birmingham artist, who recently melded her love of soul, jazz and blues music with bright, disco-tinged pop on latest album ‘Pink Noise’, cites Winehouse as a huge influence – “particularly her vocal style”.
Mvula explains: “I think I was subconsciously imitating her when I was younger and first started to sing – not even as a solo artist, but just when I was learning what my voice was. If you listen to ‘Frank’, that’s the music that raised me, this neo-soul expression that she managed to birth in the UK and give its own identity. That is huge – no one’s done that since; not as authentically, transcending and also celebrating race at the same time.”
While forging a new kind of neo-soul, it’s also fair to say that Winehouse rarely minced her words – and had little patience when she was compared to less innovative artists releasing music around the same time. Case in point: her slightly tongue-in-cheek dislike of Dido – which culminated in the singer pelting a billboard for the singer’s album ‘Life for Rent’ with an apple during an appearance on Popworld in 2004. When Amy Winehouse did feel passionately about a new artist’s talent, however, she supported it relentlessly.
“She was really supportive,” says singer Dionne Bromfield, Winehouse’s goddaughter and a MOBO-nominated singer. “I think she really saw a lot that I didn’t really see in myself at that age.” The best advice Winehouse gave her? “Be true to yourself,” Bromfield says. “Amy was someone who wore her heart on her sleeve. I think that is probably why she connected so well with people: people felt like they were almost talking to their friend or hearing their friend talk when listening to Amy.”
Bromfield has been working on a documentary about her relationship with Winehouse: Amy Winehouse and Me: Dionne’s Story airs on MTV UK on July 26. Though various other tributes are set to come out to mark 10 years since Winehouse’s death – the BBC are releasing Amy Winehouse: 10 Years On, while her mother Janis Winehouse has also made her own film, Reclaiming Amy – Bromfield hopes that her own personal celebration of a friend and mentor can show her own unique relationship with the singer.
“Amy was a very very funny person and I really wanted that to come across,” she says, adding with a laugh: “She was a really good cook if you could actually manage to get her to finish what she was cooking, because she always used to want to potter around a bit. She was really good at meatballs, and she used to do a really banging chicken soup. I mean, that’s a proper Jewish woman there with her chicken soup.
“She loved comedy stuff: when I watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air now I actually just remember all of the times watching it with her, and can almost actually hear her laughing at certain gag lines. And – oh my God – she would kill if I didn’t call her ‘Auntie Amy’. Jesus Christ! I really wanted to allow people to see this side to her.”
Bromfield sang with Amy Winehouse on several occasions, but their final performance at London’s 3,000-capacity Roundhouse – just a couple of days before the singer tragically died in 2011 – stands out as a treasured moment: “It was the last time that I actually saw her, and the last time that she was seen by the public. I really wasn’t expecting her to be there. She was at the side of the stage, and was just like: ‘I wanna come on and dance’. It was just really nice. It was the first time she’d ever actually seen me perform properly, but it was also the last time that she’d see me.”]
Pondering why Amy Winehouse continues to be so influential a decade after her passing, Bromfield puts it down to one rare quality that so few artists have in such staggering abundance. “I just think it’s the honesty,” she says. “Her personality came through with her music, and I think that is really what people love about her. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever get another Amy”.
One of the most important and talked-about music biopics of recent years will be realised and seen on 12th April. I am interested to see how critics and audiences react. The past couple of years have seen some so-so music biopics cover icons like Bob Marley. It is always a massive responsibility and hard balancing act getting a biopic right. There is no doubt Back to Black cannot do everything and please everyone. Even so, with that timeless catalogue and Marisa Abela truly committed to doing justice to Amy Winehouse, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film will be a huge thing. It will go to show, when it comes to the amazing Amy Winehouse, just…
HOW special she was.