If you are missing Amy Winehouse as much as I am, you'll be very excited
to hear that new music from her is still emerging, with 'Cherry Wine' by
Nas dropping today!
This will be one of the tracks from Nas' highly anticipated new record Life Is Good which is due out July 17th.
It's
hard to believe Amy's 1 year death anniversary is coming up on July
23rd, and we hope her music will continue to inspire people around the
world.
We premiered Vibe's JUICE cover with Kelly Rowland gracing the cover a few days ago, now here's the second soon to be released issue, which features the late Amy Winehouse. Read an exclusive excerpt below from the singer's closest confidante.
GOOD MATES SALAAM REMI: LAST DAYS WITH AMY
I’m in London now. I’m out here because [Amy and I] were supposed to go to a wedding today. And before I could get to her yesterday she passed. We were going to the wedding of Nick Symansky, who is the person who really found her. He found her when he was a scout at 19. And he was the manager before they got the Universal deal.
They went ahead with the wedding. All I could do was sit there and imagine how many jokes she would have been cracking with me. We were in the middle of working on the album. She finished writing the record. We just hadn’t recorded.
For the last couple of weeks we were video chatting regularly. I was just talking to Nas. Both her and Nas were born on September 14, so we were going to Barbados with all of them for her birthday. She really doesn’t look forward to her birthday, you know what I’m saying?
**For the rest of Salaam’s as told to on his last days with Amy as well as other exclusive content pick up the issue on August 16.
Officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology test, which are anticipated in two to four weeks. A coroner's representative maintains police have found no suspicious circumstances in the 27-year-old singer's Saturday death.
Meanwhile, details about Winehouse's final hours are emerging. Chris Goodman, her U.K.-based representative, told media outlets today that a bodyguard hired to keep watch over the singer discovered her body.
"She was in her bedroom after saying she wanted to sleep, and when he went to wake her he found she wasn't breathing," Goodman told MTV News. "He called the emergency services straight away. He was very shocked. At this stage no one knows how she died. She died alone in bed."
Winehouse's parents returned to her north London house today, calling themselves "devastated and speechless."
"Amy was about one thing, and that was love," Mitch Winehouse said to the fans and media gathered at the makeshrift shine outside his daughter's home. "Her whole life was devoted to her family friends, and to you guys as well. So we're devastated, and I'm speechless."
Winehouse's family said she had visited the doctor as recently as Friday and received a clean bill of health. There were also reports that she had entered treatment again as recently as last month.
Winehouse was working on an album before she died but canceled her latest tour last month after a Serbia show.
Amy Jade Winehouse (Sept 14, 1983) only managed to release two proper albums in her lifetime, causing a minor sensation with "Frank" in 2003 before taking the world by storm with "Back to Black," which spawned the British singer's Grammy-winning U.S. breakthrough, "Rehab."
"Back to Black" was released in the United States in March 2007 and went on to win five Grammy awards, including song and record of the year for "Rehab."
But however slim her catalog may be, those albums showed the makings of a major artist, one whose legacy goes well beyond the hit most pundits reached for as the news that Winehouse had been found dead in her London home, at 27, made its way around the world Saturday, July 23.
"Everyone who was involved with Amy is shocked and devastated. Our thoughts are with her family and friends," said Chris Goodman, a spokesman for her publicity representatives. He said her family will issue a statement when they are ready.
The British singer's record label, Universal, confirmed her death.
"We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer," the statement read. "Our prayers go out to Amy's family, friends and fans at this difficult time."
Her father, Mitch Winehouse, himself a musician, had just flown to New York to perform two shows at the Blue Note jazz club, but learned the news upon arrival and immediately flew back to the U.K.
Amy & Father
Police confirmed that a 27-year-old female was pronounced dead at the home in Camden Square northern London; the cause of death was not immediately known. London Ambulance Services said Winehouse had died before the two ambulance crews it sent arrived at the scene. TMZ.com later reported that there may have been some signs of life when the crew arrived, but that Winehouse died before she could be taken to the hospital.
An Amy Winehouse fan puts a note outside Winehouse's home in London. It reads in part: "Dearest Amy. I'm glad u made it home."
An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday, TMZ.com reports.
Photographs show that her body was taken out of the home under a red blanket.
The body of Amy Winehouse is carried into a private ambulance from her house in north London on July 23. The singer, just 27, was found dead in her home there.
"I didn't go out looking to be famous," Winehouse told the Associated Press when "Back to Black" was released. "I'm just a musician."
