Anthony D’Amato is getting ready backstage at Sony Hall in Manhattan. He doesn’t go unnoticed with his 1.80m height, thick-rimmed glasses and the name “Amy” written in big black letters on the side of his head. It’s not a tattoo, it’s just eyeliner and it’s easy to remove. In a few minutes, the New Jersey singer and his 12-piece band will take the stage, take their seats under a lighted sign with Amy Winehouse’s name and a replica of her signature hairstyle, and play the album Back to Black from top to bottom. And no, it’s certainly not the first time they’ve done it.
“I never imagined I would do it 200 times or so,” says D’Amato, who performs under the stage name Remember Jones. “Everyone knew Amy Winhouse, my queer friends, my black friends, even my mother.”
When she died in July 2011 at her home in Camden due to alcohol poisoning, Winehouse left behind just two albums (including the classic Back to Black) and a tormented life made up of addictions, marriages, divorces, all immortalized in a million photos taken by paparazzi. In the years that followed, both its musical and cultural importance grew. Lana Del Rey, Adele, Lady Gaga and Future have cited her as an influence, Miley Cyrus and Måneskin have remade her songs on stage. D’Amato’s show is just one of many that take place all over the world, from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Serbia to Slovenia. In many cases there are Winehouse lookalikes singing, showing off her characteristic haircut, eyeliner, pumps and miniskirt.
There are those who make the pilgrimage to Camden to see a life-size bronze statue of Winehouse erected in her honor in 2014 (earlier this year, to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza, someone covered the pendant with the Star of David that the statue wears around its neck with a sticker depicting the Palestinian flag). For $135,000, diehard Winehouse fans, who call themselves Winettes or Cherries (from the song Cherry) can take possession of the approximately 230 books owned by the singer. A few years ago, the Washington rare book dealer Type Punch Matrix purchased the collection at a charity auction organized by the pop star’s family and then put it up for sale. The collection includes books about her hero Frank Sinatra, novels by Jackie Collins, biographies of musicians who have struggled with addiction (Anthony Kiedis, Jimi Hendrix), a copy of Howl by Allen Ginsberg with an unfinished text stuck inside and some decidedly worn volumes.
“You can tell by their state that he was reading to them in the bathtub or lighting candles and then they dripped on them,” says Brian Cassidy of Type Punch Matrix. «The condition of the volumes helps to tell a story, it talks about his life». A kiss given with lipstick is imprinted on a book. “I can’t prove it’s Amy’s, but I’m pretty sure it is.”
Meanwhile, the business around Winehouse has expanded. His legacy now includes more than a dozen reissues, compilations, live recordings, documentaries. His 2003 debut Frank will be commemorated this year with a new edition and video of In My Bed.
And then there is Back to Blackthe biopic directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (who directed the film about John Lennon Nowhere Boy). During filming, the director noticed that Winehouse is everywhere. «You go into a restaurant and hear her singing. You turn the corner and there’s a mural. You walk into a store and there’s a poster. People wear her t-shirts. She seems to be everywhere.”
Much has been said about the age at which she died: 27, like Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and others of the so-called Club 27. At the time, comparisons with those legends seemed premature. 13 years after her death they don’t seem exaggerated. One of the first great pop stars of the millennium, Winehouse is now the equivalent of Cobain or Morrison for the generation that came of age with pop this century. «She IS of the same kind as them not only in life, but also in music». Cassidy says. «There is a part of tragedy, but also a lot of joy and creativity. Her existence has something archetypal.”
As his former bassist Dale Davis says, «once in every generation an artist comes along and changes everything. It doesn’t surprise me that people still have an interest in her. You had a short career, like Cobain, but your impact was enormous.”
When trying to identify the precise moment in which the posthumous business around the figure of Winehouse began, one cannot help but think of Amy, the 2015 documentary by Asif Kapadia. It won an Oscar and grossed $23 million worldwide, an exceptional amount for a documentary of any kind. “The interest arose immediately afterwards,” confirms Chris Jones, an executive at Sony Music Publishing, who supervises the licensing of his songs.
After the film, Davis was approached about reuniting Winehouse’s old band to tour with a singer playing Amy. Originally called Forever Amy and then renamed the Amy Winehouse Band, the English tribute band remakes Winehouse’s signature setlist. «Wanting to convey the idea of what it was like, it was natural to try to imitate the original show».
Davis admits he had doubts about the idea. She also experienced a disturbing moment during one of the group’s first shows in 2016, when an Italian singer played Winehouse. “My bass wouldn’t stay in tune, I thought it was Amy trying to tell me something.” Seeing people moved and hearing from a fan that her dying mother had wanted to attend the concert to experience Winehouse before leaving reconciled him with the decision she had made. Except for the pandemic period, the Amy Winehouse Band has never stopped playing. The singer’s father Mitch Winehouse (who did not want to be interviewed for this article) saw the show and gave it his blessing. “He found it exciting,” Davis says.
Both the Winehouse Band and D’Amato shows called Back to Back to Black they purposely avoid singers with Amy’s look. The current singer of the exes’ band, Brontë Shande, doesn’t wear hats or Winehouse-style makeup. “She counts the spirit,” says Davis. «I worked with the real Amy, I don’t want an imitator». D’Amato, whose show features both male and female singers, also has mixed feelings about lookalikes. «I don’t criticize them, but some are not exactly the best, due to the way they sing or for other reasons. Nobody can copy Amy.”
Not all projects related to Winehouse they went through. A tour featuring Davis and the old band accompanying a hologram of Winehouse was announced in 2018, but fell through for unclear reasons. Overall, however, Winehouse’s business seems to be going swimmingly. Apparently, its publishing catalog is valued at almost 20 times its annual revenue. Last year, Openville Ltd., the company run by the singer’s divorced parents, Mitch and Janis, had a net worth of about $2 million. According to the Royalty Exchange, which allows investors to buy royalty shares of select songs, Winehouse’s catalog provides “consistent and ever-growing earnings” and is “above the 75th percentile of all catalogs analyzed by the Royalty Exchange.” Last year, 17 years after the creation, the video of Back to Black has surpassed one billion views on YouTube.
Winehouse’s fortune is set to increase as she arrives in the United States on May 17 Back to Black, which stars the English actress Marisa Abela and traces the singer’s life from adolescence to death. “The interest has been constant over the last five or six years,” assures Jones, “and the film will provide further impetus.” Rockabilia, the online shop that sells official music merchandise, is predicting a surge in sales of Winehouse T-shirts. «It happened with Bob Marley thanks to her movie that just came out», says co-owner Frankie Blydenburgh, «and I think it will happen with her too».
Photos of Abela as Winehouse have been making the rounds on the Internet, much to the disappointment of some fans. “It’s a joke in bad taste, Amy would be pissed about this stuff,” she reads in a typical comment. Davis knows this well: «Even in my Instagram feed there were people who wanted to make a petition to stop the film». She tells director Taylor-Johnson that «there are people who judge a film by a single photograph. All I can say is that I treated Amy with reverence and respect.”
Winehouse’s fan base may resemble that of rock legends of the past, but there is a new aspect. Amy’s success coincided with the rise of social media. The way her life was exposed publicly created a bond with a generation that in turn lived on social media. “And so when faced with her life and her battles, fans chose identification over sensationalism,” says D’Amato. “They think: he was a bit like me.”
After his band’s 90-minute concert, D’Amato is approached by a fan with a Winehouse tattoo on her arm. «I always think I should take photos with someone who shows me her tattoos. If you carve Amy into your skin, it means you have a deep connection with her.”
From Rolling Stone US.
