Before Adele became a multiplatinum powerhouse, there was another British crooner who ruled the airwaves: soul singer Amy Winehouse, who passed away in her London home on July 23, 2011.
With smoky-voiced Adele entertaining audiences worldwide, Grammy winner Winehouse, 27, was eager to record a follow-up to her 2006 smash Back to Black. “We spent a little time together and talked about it,” Winehouse’s friend and longtime collaborator Mark Ronson, 36, told The Village Voice May 9. “But, what little time we had, well, it was tense. She was in a bad state, God knows why.”
“I think that the Adele thing had Amy freaked out. She liked her, but Adele’s success was making Amy feel upset, competitive, restless,” Ronson continued. “Anyway, we lost touch briefly. And before she and I could really start the process of beginning a new album, it was too late.”
Both Adele, 24, and Winehouse attended the famed BRIT School as teens, which offers vocational training for the performing arts. Other famous alumni include singers Leona Lewis, 27, and Jessie J, 24, and Revenge actress Ashley Madekwe, 30.
In October 2011, a coroner ruled that Winehouse “had consumed sufficient alcohol. . .and the unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels was her sudden and unexpected death.” With no will in existence, the singer’s parents inherited her fortune, worth a reported $4.66 million after debts and taxes.
