Amy Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English soul jazz and R&B singer and songwriter. Her debut album, Frank (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Winehouse is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner; once in 2004 for her debut single “Stronger than Me” and again in May 2007 for the first single “Rehab” from her 2006 internationally acclaimed second album Back to Black. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist.

Winehouse was born in Southgate, London to a Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians. Her father, Mitchell Winehouse, is a taxi driver, and her mother is a pharmacist. She grew up in the suburb of Southgate. At around the age of 10, Winehouse founded a short-lived amateur rap group called Sweet ‘n’ Sour, as Sour. She described the group as “the little white Jewish Salt ‘n’ Pepa”. She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School when she was 12 years old but was expelled at 13 for “not applying herself” and piercing her own nose. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon.

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[via FoxyTunes / Amy Winehouse]