Amy Winehouse’s father hints singer’s unheard early music will be released

Friday marks 10 years since Winehouse, best known for songs including Back To Black and Rehab, died of alcohol poisoning at her home in Camden, north London, at the age of 27.

Two posthumous collections of her music have been released – 2011’s Lioness: Hidden Treasures, and Amy from 2015.

Mitch Winehouse told the BBC he wants her early recordings to be released, despite them not standing up to her acclaimed second and final studio album, Back To Black.

He said: “We found a few bits and pieces but it is difficult because the CDs are a bit corrupted. But apparently we have been told that we might be able to rescue something.

“I would like Amy’s fans to hear all this stuff so they can see she started there and she ended up there.

“It might not be as good as Back To Black but, from what I have heard from the snippets, it’s good.”

The anniversary has been met with a flurry of books and documentaries recalling the star’s musical highs and difficult final years.

Winehouse’s goddaughter, singer Dionne Bromfield, has made a documentary marking the milestone, which airs on MTV UK on Monday at 10pm.

The 25-year-old recalled the moment she was told of Winehouse’s death shortly before going on stage at a music festival in Wales.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, she said: “We were out of the loop for quite a while then all of sudden everyone’s phones went mad and I was about to literally go on stage 15 minutes beforehand.”

She added: “It’s like, if it was a sunny day, a dark cloud all of sudden appeared.”

Bromfield, whose singing career was championed by the late star, also recalled the impact of her godmother’s death.

“When I was 15, at the time there were a lot of emotions that I didn’t really know how to deal with,” she said.

“I definitely retracted from things.

“When it is someone of that magnitude, I didn’t know what people’s intentions were, so when people would ask me about her I was a little bit like ‘Do you really care…?’”

Singer-songwriter Tyler James, a close friend of Winehouse since the age of 13, has published My Amy: The Life We Shared, a memoir of their time together.

He told Times Radio that the singer would not have found success in today’s music industry where artists are expected to be business-savvy.

He said: “I don’t think people like Amy come up very often and I don’t think people like her will come up very often in the future because now, to be an artist, you have to have a whole bunch of other skills.

“You have to be a businessman. You have to self-promote. You have to put yourself all over the internet. You have to do all of these things and I don’t think a real artist cares about those kinds of things. A real artist just puts pen to paper or paint to canvas, whatever it is.”

James added: “Can you imagine Amy trying to run a Twitter page? That is just not who she is.

“And that is the kind of thing people need to do these days, and that is why still, 10 years later, who has come along like her since? I can’t think of anyone.”

Winehouse’s death in 2011 followed a battle with alcohol and drugs.

Her family set up charitable organisation the Amy Winehouse Foundation on what would have been her 28th birthday to combat drug and alcohol abuse among young people and help them overcome eating disorders or self-harm.

Across her celebrated career, Winehouse won several prestigious awards, including a number of Grammys, a Brit, a Mobo and three Ivor Novellos.

Winehouse was immortalised with a life-size bronze statue – complete with her trademark beehive hairdo – in Camden on what would have been her 31st birthday in 2014.