Amy Winehouse [1] was only 27 years old when she died on July 23, 2011. As news of her passing broke across the globe, the English singer was quickly compared to other famous musicians whose lives ended at the same age, a group that has long been referred to as "The 27 Club." [2] Amy joined Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin [3], Jimi Hendrix [4], and a handful of other stars whose deaths were unexpected and, in many cases, caused by substance abuse.
Amy Winehouse emerged as one of the most talented singers of the decade thanks to her 2006 album Back to Black. She racked up tons of industry praise and awards, becoming the first British woman to win five Grammys. But fame was not her friend. Amy's short life was plagued by bouts of depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and drug and alcohol addiction. She was in a toxic, volatile relationship with husband Blake Fielder-Civil, which led to even deeper spirals of substance abuse and outrageous behaviour and made her an increasingly easy target for the press and paparazzi [5]. At the height of her notoriety, she was most known for being (for lack of a better word) a mess.
After divorcing Blake Fielder-Civil, Amy was able to see more clearly. She quit drugs and alcohol in 2008 after a stay in rehab and was even making music again. In a 2010 interview [6], she told Glamour UK, "I literally woke up one day and was like, 'I don't want to do this anymore.'" By 2011, Amy's life seemed to be on the up and up.
Three days before her death, Amy's bodyguard, Andrew Morris, alleged [7] that she had seemed intoxicated. "She didn't over-drink. She wasn't drinking to get drunk," he said of her intake over the next few days. He said that she had "big plans" for that weekend, and observed Amy "laughing, listening to music, and watching TV" early in the morning on the day of her death. According to Morris, he saw her lying on her bed around 10 a.m. and tried to wake her up. It wasn't unusual for Amy to sleep in after a long night, so he didn't think much of it. About five hours later, Morris checked on the singer again — she was in the same position, not breathing, and without a pulse. Andrew Morris called authorities, and two ambulances were sent to Amy's home in Camden, London. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The coroner reached a "verdict of misadventure" in Amy's death. Three empty bottles of vodka were found in her bedroom, and a toxicology report explained that while Amy's blood alcohol level was more than five times the legal limit in the UK, there were no illegal substances in her body [8].
Because Amy had been in a pattern of abstaining from alcohol for weeks [9], then starting to drink again, the fatal amount of alcohol she consumed may have "stopped her breathing and sent her into a coma." A second inquest, done in 2013, confirmed that Amy's cause of death was an accidental alcohol poisoning [10]. It was also believed that her ongoing struggles with bulimia [11] contributed to her body's weakness and inability to fight back.
In the wake of her passing, Amy's breakout album Back to Black posthumously became the bestselling album in the UK [13] in the 21st century. In 2015, the haunting documentary Amy was released [14] and took home an Oscar for best documentary feature, as well as a Grammy for best music film and an MTV Movie Award for best documentary. Shortly after Amy's death, on what would have been her 28th birthday, her family set up the Amy Winehouse [15] Foundation to help prevent young people from using drugs and alcohol and give them the resources to deal with emotional issues.