Summary
Amy Winehouse died in July 2011 aged just 27.
'Back to Black' - the title track of her second and final album - is a torch song to tragic love, addiction and loss.
People who loved her and her music talk about how she helped them cope with their own struggles.
Lesley Jamison is now a successful writer, but at 27 she was an alcoholic. She stopped drinking the same year that Amy died. Lesley reflects on how her own life could have followed the same path had she gone further into the darkness or the black of drinking and self-destruction.
Daisy Buchanan tells her story of addictive love and how Back to Black helped her break free. Umaru Saidu was a vulnerable teenager with mental health issues who lost a dear childhood friend when he was 17. He later trained at the Amy's Yard programme and is grateful for the inspiration she gave him.
As a young teenager Amy Charles too identified with the pain expressed in Back to Black and says it helped her deal with depression brought on by a spinal injury.
Donald Brackett is the author of Back to Black: Amy Winehouse's Only Masterpiece and believes performing the song may have become traumatic for her in the end as it forced her to relive the emotional pain.
Elizabeth Kesses was visiting her terminally ill father at the same hospital where Amy Winehouse was being treated. She recalls seeing her there and hoping she would recover. Sadly it was not to be.
But these stories reveal a legacy that goes beyond the music.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:40.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:44.3 | I was never part of a scene where I was the leader of a bunch of Jewish girls that sung jazz, |
| 0:49.3 | you know what I mean? I don't know anyone like myself, you know what I mean? |
| 0:52.4 | But I know that if I'm honest about myself and honest about my time |
| 0:59.0 | and what I do with my life, you know, I know there's girls that will hear that |
| 1:05.0 | in my album and be like, yeah, I felt that. |
| 1:07.0 | I'm not an idiot for feeling them things, or I'm not weak for feeling them things, or I'm not a idiot for feeling them things or I'm not weak for feeling them things |
| 1:12.1 | or I'm not a mug for feeling them things about this man. You know what I mean? That's what I'm here for. |
| 1:18.9 | The saddest music ever recorded on earth. It's a harrowing hymn for sure. It's about carrying |
| 1:25.9 | the torch for a lost love. It is about kind of feeling okay and not feeling okay |
| 1:32.3 | and reminding yourself that you're not the only one in the world who's felt |
| 1:36.3 | absolutely terrible. |
| 1:38.3 | This is the millennial I will survive. |
... |
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