British artist Amy Winehouse released her second album, Back To Black, on 30^th October 2006 on Island Records.  Canadian bass player and producer Mark Ronson and American keyboard player and producer Salaam Remi produced it. Winehouse wrote all of the eleven songs on Back To Black, which includes Rehab, You Know I'm No Good, Me & Mr. Jones, Just Friends, Back To Black, Love Is A Losing Game, Tears Dry On Their Own and Addicted. She also gave an exceptional vocal performance on each of the songs with high levels of energy and dynamite soul. 

Back To Black took three years to finish and during that time Amy's musical influences were changing. She started listening to 60's girl groups from soul music; eventually she would be listening to soul legends Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. Amy found new love for songs that sang about broken hearts and dangerous relationships. The album gave Amy Winehouse an opportunity to sing about her troubles from 2003 to 2006. Back To Black begins with a first song about rehab, where she sings an unforgettable chorus: "They tried to make me go to rehab I said no no no". You Know I'm No Good is her admitting to being not a very nice person; "I cheated myself, like I knew I would, I told you I was trouble, you know that I'm no good." Me & Mr. Jones is a blues felt soul song with strong lyrics, "What kind of f**kery is this? You made me miss the slick Rick gig." Just Friends is a reggae inspired song, with much of the lyrical content having Amy singing about her heart breaking over wanting to be just friends; "I want to touch you, But that just hurts."

Back To Black is the most atmospheric sounding song on the album and at times haunting. "We only said goodbye with words, I died a hundred times." Love Is A Losing Game offers rhythmically a slow paced song, showing us Amy's softer side, her more romantic attitude towards love and relationship: "For you I was a flame, Love is a losing game." On Back To Black's next song, Tears Dry On Their Own, Amy singing "And in this grey, in this blue shade, my tears dry on there own" Which by reading is sad and lonely, yet musically it is up beat and fast, as Amy Winehouse' producer Salaam Remi has sampled Ain't No Mountain High Enough (written by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson). Amy gets close and intimate to the listener with her next song, Wake Up Alone, her song writing gets deep and she sings a song of loneliness and longing for love: "I stay up clean the house; at least I'm not drinking, run around just so I don't have to think about thinking." He Can Only Hold Her has a good groove and a good vibe. P*Nut produces the original demo and it perfectly blends into the last song Addicted. Back To Black finishes on a an impressive note musically and lyrically with Addicted, as Amy sings "Tell your boyfriend, Next time he around, to buy his own weed and don't wear my sh** down."

Amy Winehouse made a great second album for a twenty-two year old woman and new artist. Back To Black however, was not just the beginning to Amy's fame and fortune, but three solid years of trouble. Amy's personal life has never been completely trouble free, and what was to come in her own life would be headline news. Once Island Records released Back To Black officially on October 30^th 2008, Amy's life went from bad to worse and eventually really ugly. Even before the official release of Back To Black, those who loved Amy worried greatly as they witnessed her battling with substance abuse due to all the media attention.

Amy's family and friends grew extremely concerned as her problems manifested themselves through self-harm, depression and eating disorders. By the end of 2005, she went through a period of heavy drinking, heavy drug use, violent mood swings, and weight loss. These, along with her new interest in tattoos, devastated those around her who loved her. Amy's family and friends believed it was the death of her beloved grandmother in the summer of 2006 that spearheaded her free fall addiction.

In 2007, Amy secretly married Blake Fielder-Civil in Miami, and this only troubled Amy's life even more. Her husband was a dramatic man, with a history of issues such as drugs, self-harm and suicide attempts. Marrying a man such as Blake made Amy's friends and family understandably fear for her life. Amy Winehouse as a teenager had experienced broken relationships before, with her boyfriends and what with her parents divorcing. Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil's families never had gotten along; all of this was going on in Amy's personal life and at the same time she had to pursue her professional career in music. Amy also didn't get along with her major label either, and yet Island Records continued to fix international performance dates to promote the record. Back To Black remained firmly in the charts and soon Amy's life would become publicly exposed. It was if she was re-living the lives of her musical inspirations Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.

Back To Black may be the most controversial record of the 21^st century and is one of the biggest selling. It earned the now twenty-six year old artist six Grammy nominations and five wins earlier in 2008. Yet, Amy Winehouse is still a work in progress with her personal life. She has the achievements in her music career that she worked so hard for and deserves but she also has the knowledge from doctors that if she doesn't clean up her act she could possibly face a slow and painful death due to too much drink and drugs. Amy's husband Blake is in jail, which may give her enough time to sort out her life. But reports have been made that she has still taken drugs regardless of previous warnings; and this makes me think that Back To Black could be Amy Winehouse' last album.

Back To Black didn't help Amy's life and many of her fans long for the artist we all knew and fell in love with her debut album Frank that was released on 20^th October 2003 on Island Records. We have never known Amy to have a perfect life; do any of us have perfect lives? Do any of us have the talent Amy Winehouse has? Amy is certainly an artist we cannot give up on. Right from the beginning of her music career in 2003 Amy Winehouse at just nineteen years old proved she was a heavy weight talent as a singer and songwriter with Frank. It was also a phenomenal debut album musically, combining jazz with modern soul and hip-hop. Lets hope Amy Winehouse is around for to make more memorable music. I believe that Amy Winehouse is is one of the greatest soul singers the world will ever know and, regardless of her troubled personal life, she has achieved incredible amounts for a twenty-six year old.  Lets hope she makes a recovery so that we'll hear more great music from her.

By Matthew Daniel