Amy Winehouse — singer-songwriter with roots in the Russian Empire
Amy Winehouse was a British singer-songwriter whose raw, jazz-inflected soul voice and brutally honest songwriting made her one of the most distinctive artists of the 21st century. Her album Back to Black (2006) won five Grammy Awards and sold over 20 million copies. She died in 2011 at 27.
Tracing the roots — UK
Winehouse's maternal ancestors were Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated from Russia to East London in the early 20th century, settling in the Jewish immigrant communities of Stoke Newington and Southgate. That heritage — the storytelling, the emotional directness, the North London Jewish world she grew up in — runs through her music as much as her beloved Motown and jazz records.
A career defined by ambition
"I write songs because I'm fucked up in the head and it helps me to talk about it."