Amy Winehouse Quotes: Ten Poignant Insights Into Her Life
Our favorite Amy Winehouse quotes offer a revealing insight into the life of an artist who was always her natural self in front of the media.
Born on September 14, 1983, Amy Winehouse was one of the brightest lights in recent music history. That light was tragically extinguished on July 23, 2011, but her legacy only grows and grows.
We’ve collected ten of our favorite Amy Winehouse quotes, offering a revealing insight into the life of an artist who was never anything but her natural self in front of the media. Some of her observations are funny, some are sad and all of them are poignant. Here’s to Amy’s memory.
Listen to the best of Amy Winehouse on Apple Music and Spotify.
“I would have been happy to sing in a covers band for the rest of my life. And I wouldn’t have gone on one of those [TV talent] shows in a million, billion years, because I think that musicality is not something other people should judge you on. Music’s a thing you have with yourself. Even though the people who go on those shows are sh**, it’s really damaging to be told that you are.” (Q magazine, January 2004)
“I believe in fate and I believe that things happen for a reason but I don’t think that there’s a high power, necessarily. I believe in karma very much though. There are so many rude people around and they’re the people that don’t have any real friends. And relationships with people — with your mum, your nan, your dog — are what you get the most happiness in life from. Apart from shoes and bags.” (Q magazine, January 2004)
“When I was six or seven…I liked Kylie and loved Madonna. I listened to Madonna’s Immaculate Collection every day until I was about 11, and then I discovered Salt-N-Pepa and TLC. That was, ‘Oh my God…this is my music!’ Me and my best friend Juliet started our first ever band, Sweet’n’Sour. We were rappers. I was Sour, of course.” (The Observer, 2004)
“Music is something in my life where I can be completely honest, and sometimes I don’t want to sing some of the songs ’cos they’re so raw.” (Q magazine, June 2004)
“I’m a girly girl. It’s just my music. It’s the only thing I have real dignity in in my life. That’s the one area in my life where I can hold my head up and say, ‘No one can touch me.’ ’Cos no one can touch me!” (The Observer, 2004)
“I was bored of complicated chord structures and needed something more direct. I’d been listening to a lot of girl groups from the 50s and 60s. I liked the simplicity of that stuff. It just gets to the point. So I started thinking about writing songs in that way.” (Back To Black press biography, 2006)
“If I haven’t done it, I just can’t put it into a song. It has to be autobiographical. It’s an exorcism. I get all my stuff out there. If I didn’t have this medium to get my experiences across, I would be lost.” (Back To Black press biography, 2006)
Listen to the best of Amy Winehouse on Apple Music and Spotify.
“I don’t have a broad spectrum of music, really. I’m kinda like an old man. I’m kinda oblivious to the stuff that’s going on. I know it’s cool and that the kids love it but I don’t really get it, ya know what I mean? I listen to a lot of 60s doo-wop, soul and Motown girl groups…I like the attitude and drama of it, [but] I didn’t so much like the polished groups. I’m not a big Supremes fan. I like garage girl groups like Goldie and the Gingerbreads.” (XXL, 2007)
“I love doing music and playing gigs, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to do so. But to be honest, I’m not the kind of person that will think about the demographic. I’m just the ‘turn’.” (Billboard, 2007)
“I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.” (Rolling Stone, 2007)
Buy or stream the half-speed master of Amy Winehouse’s debut album Frank.
McKendrick
November 9, 2018 at 3:25 pm
The people around her could have prevented what happenened to Amy. But no, record companies, managers, newpapers, all looking at the bottom line. She was influenced by, and treated despicably by the very people who were supposed to be looking after her career. Utterly disgusting. The best thing to happen to REAL MUSIC probably since the Beatles and they just sucked the life out of her.
Tina Maria Camilleri
November 11, 2018 at 6:14 am
So veey true! Amy coulda produced quality vocals & music for decades! ‘Rehab’ just blew me away! It was the best thing I had heard in years! I’m also a fan of the 50’s/60’s girl groups,ballads and doowap style,including ska music too. Love live the music & memory of Amy,what a true gem! ♦️
erik winter
December 22, 2019 at 4:33 pm
you can’t save an addict, it’s up to them to start making better decisions
Steve
December 24, 2019 at 2:42 pm
Very true, I’m going into rehab after Jan 1, true story
Leon Greenwell
March 22, 2020 at 10:54 pm
How did you get on? RIP Amy
Roderick K Bryant
March 23, 2020 at 4:41 am
You CAN save an addict, but the addict has to want to be saved…
JC Edwards
September 27, 2019 at 6:36 am
aahhahahahhaa …. f*cking no talent
eric winter
December 22, 2019 at 4:34 pm
JC Edwards, take your laptop, walk into the bathroom. Now look in the mirror and read your comment……………………….ahhahahah
Brian
January 21, 2020 at 8:17 pm
JC, see eric for a dose of the truth.
batmansbestfriend
February 24, 2020 at 3:15 pm
She sand a song about refusing to go to rehab and then she died from her alcohol addiction. I’m not saying it’s a bad song, but if you’re going to be a rebel…there’s nothing stupider than admitting to the world that you’re proud of your drug addiction.
Jack Deckard
March 3, 2020 at 8:56 pm
I find it hard to be sorry for people who kill themselves. She had oodles of talent and too many fans who willfully deny her faults.
Roger Harris
April 6, 2020 at 9:36 am
The JC Edwards trolling is a typical example of the view that a troll is someone who drinks poison and expects their ‘victim/victims’ to die. If their intended victim/victims laughs at them, the troll becomes their own victim.
The first time I heard Amy sing ‘Back to Black’ I was stunned. The desolation she conveyed was not just a great singer’s interpretation of a song, she was describing her own feelings.
With the benefit of hindsight, alarm bells should have been ringing with her family and friends. I know what Jack Deckard means, but someone’s fragile mental health can become such an all-consuming thing.