Amy Winehouse — singer-songwriter with roots in the Russian Empire
Amy Jade Winehouse was born on 14 September 1983 at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, North London, to Mitch Winehouse, a taxi driver, and Janis Winehouse, née Seaton, a pharmacist, and grew up in Southgate with her elder brother Alex. Her connection to the Russian Empire runs through her father's line, four generations back.
Her great-great-grandfather, Harris Winehouse, arrived in London from Minsk; the Jewish Museum London dates his arrival to 1890, other accounts to 1891, and a family story holds that he thought he had reached New York. In 2019, when the museum's exhibition travelled to Minsk, researchers working with the National Historical Archives of Belarus found that the family's emigration papers named Minsk as the place of departure but that no Winehouse appeared in the city's own records; the family's last recorded residence was a small town in the Minsk district of the Minsk Governorate.
Like many Jewish immigrant families, the Winehouses lived first in the East End, where her great-grandfather Benjamin kept a barber's shop, and later moved to the northern suburbs. Her grandmother Cynthia taught her to read tarot cards. The family was traditional rather than religious and kept Friday-night dinners; Amy attended a Jewish Sunday school and sang in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
She signed with Simon Fuller's 19 Management in 2002 and released her first album, Frank, in October 2003, mostly produced by Salaam Remi; it went platinum and was shortlisted for the 2004 Mercury Prize, and Stronger Than Me won the Ivor Novello Award. Back to Black (2006) brought the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist and, at the Grammy Awards in 2008, five wins, including Record and Song of the Year for Rehab and Best New Artist, then a joint record for a woman on a single night.
She died at her home in Camden on 23 July 2011, aged twenty-seven. Back to Black then briefly became the best-selling album of the century in the United Kingdom. In 2013 the Jewish Museum London, a few streets from her home, opened Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait, assembled with her brother Alex, which traced the family back to Harris Winehouse.
"Great-great-grandfather Harris Winehouse arrived in London from Minsk in 1890 or 1891 (sources differ); the family settled in the East End, where great-grandfather Benjamin kept a barber's shop."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Minsk Governorate (now Belarus)
Her great-great-grandfather Harris Winehouse came to London from Minsk, then in the Russian Empire, in 1890 or 1891. Research in the National Historical Archives of Belarus in 2019 placed the family's last recorded residence in the Minsk district.
Paternal line: Harris Winehouse, who listed Minsk as his place of departure; Belarusian archivists found the family's last recorded residence in the Minsk district of the Minsk Governorate. Great-grandfather Benjamin Winehouse, East End barber; grandmother Cynthia; father Mitch, a taxi driver; mother Janis, a pharmacist.
.svg?width=900)
Minsk Governorate (now Belarus). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"I write songs because I'm fucked up in the head and it helps me to talk about it."