Fans and fellow stars mourned Amy Winehouse yesterday after the troubled British singer, who immortalised her struggles with addiction in the hit Rehab, was found dead at her London home aged 27.
Reports said the Grammy award-winning soul diva, with her trademark beehive hairstyle, had overdosed on drugs but police refused to speculate on the cause of her death, saying it remained unexplained.
“A date and time for the post-mortem will not be scheduled before Monday morning,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement yesterday. It said enquiries were still continuing and no arrests had been made.
Fans gathered and laid flowers and candles at the police cordon outside her house in Camden, north London, soon after her death was announced, while friends and fellow stars voiced their shock and sadness.
Her death makes her the latest tragic member of a club of rock stars who have died at the age of 27, including Rolling Stone Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Doors singer Jim Morrison and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Producer Mark Ronson, who worked closely with Ms Winehouse, said: “She was my musical soulmate and like a sister to me. This is one of the saddest days of my life.”
With her distinctive hairdo, lashings of eye make-up and garish tattoos, Ms Winehouse rocketed to fame with her 2003 debut album Frank. It went triple platinum in Britain.
The 2006 follow-up, Back to Black, was a worldwide smash hit, reaching number one in Britain and number two in the US charts and winning five Grammy awards.
But her battle with drink and drugs increasingly overshadowed her talent.
The album also spawned the hit Rehab, which contains the lines: “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no.... Just try and make me go to rehab, I won’t go, go go.”
In the end she did go several times — most recently this year, just weeks before she embarked on what was meant to be a 12-date European comeback tour.
But she pulled out following a disastrous opening performance in Serbia on June 18 when she was booed on stage, apparently too drunk to sing. She stumbled her way through the 90-minute gig, mumbling and failing to follow her band.
She made her final public appearance at The Roundhouse venue in Camden on Wednesday, joining her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield on stage. She briefly danced and encouraged the audience to buy the 15-year-old’s album.