Book of notes by Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse (1983–2011) became world famous with her towering hairstyle, thick eyeliner and songs like “Rehab”. The musician, who died of alcohol poisoning, would have turned 40 on Thursday, September 14th. Some of her personal notes have now been published in book form in England. The book “In Her Words” includes baby photos, diary entries, paintings, poems and notes on her song lyrics.

As a teenager, Amy Winehouse loved to write lists. And thought about how she decorates her room and what she wants to achieve: owning a shoe collection (at least 300 pairs), meeting actors Liz Taylor and Paul Newman. Also make a movie where she looks ugly. She wanted to make “people look up to me.” Amy had to cope with her parents’ separation and also wondered about boys in her notes: “Will I ever find love, or am I doomed to date metalheads or great guys with no brains (a thing I hate)?”

Winehouse concluded: “I’m happy to be different.” She loves to have her own style and to sometimes contradict things.

There is now a monument in the London district of Camden that commemorates the soul musician. The figure’s hair is pinned up – the hairstyle is called a “beehive” because it resembles a beehive. In the book, her parents Janis Winehouse-Collins and Mitch Winehouse raise the question of whether Amy wasn’t also hiding behind it. “Despite being one of the most photographed singers of her generation, Amy, deep down, was never comfortable with the fame she achieved in such a short space of time,” the book says.

Of course, Amy’s story cannot be glossed over, the parents write. She was dependent. “It’s bittersweet for us to look back at a diary entry Amy wrote as a teenager: ‘Most of the time I have this dream of being very famous, of working on stage.'”