Amy Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983 in the Southgate area of Enfield London. Her father is a taxi driver and her mother is a chemist. She grew up in the suburb of Southgate and attended Ashmole School. At around the age of 10 Winehouse founded a short lived amateur rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour. She described the group as 'the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa'. She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School when she was 12 years old but was expelled at 14. She later attended the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon.

By the age of sixteen she was singing professionally after her friend Tyler James sent her demo tape to an A&R person. She signed to her current record label Island/Universal under Simon Fuller's management company 19 Management.

Amy's debut album, Frank, was released on 20 October 2003. It was produced mainly by Salaam Remi with many songs having jazz-influences and, apart from two covers, every song co-written by Winehouse. The album entered the upper levels of the UK album chart in 2004 when it was nominated for BRIT Awards in the categories of "British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". It went on to achieve platinum sales. Later in 2004, she won the Ivor Novello songwriting Award for "Best Contemporary Song" with her contribution to the first single, "Stronger Than Me". The album also made the short list for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize.

In early 2006, demonstration tracks such as "Wake Up Alone" and "Rehab" appeared on Mark Ronson's New York radio show. These were some of the first new songs played on the radio since the release of "Pumps" and were both to appear on her second album. Back to Black went to number one on the UK Albums Chart, and entered at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200, becoming the highest debut entry for an album by a British female solo artist, only to be outdone two weeks later by Joss Stone who debuted at number two with Introducing Joss Stone.

The first single released from the album on 23 October 2006 was "Rehab", a song about her past refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre after it was encouraged by her management company. On October 22, 2006, based solely on download sales, it entered the UK Singles Chart at #19 and when the CD single was released the following week, it climbed to #7. On January 14, 2007, the album rose one spot from #2 to reach the #1 position on the UK Album Chart. After the success of her BRIT award win her album again rose to #1 on 25 February.

Winehouse performed three headline gigs in September 2006 and in November 2006 performed another ten across the UK, including headlining one of the Little Noise Sessions charity concerts at the Union Chapel. She was scheduled to headline another fourteen gigs over February 2007 - March 2007.

The second single from the album was "You Know I'm No Good". The single was released on January 8, 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It made #18 in the UK singles chart and, in the same week's chart, "Rehab" climbed back up to #20. Back to Black was released in the United States in March 2007, with "You Know I'm No Good" as its lead single. Rehab rose to the position of #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of June 14, after a performance of it on the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. The following week it again rose one position to #9.

At the BRIT Awards 2007, she performed her hit "Rehab". She won the Best British Female Artist award. Winehouse performed at the June 2007 Glastonbury Festival in the UK, the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago on August 5, 2007 as well as the Virgin Music Festival held in Baltimore on August 4, 2007. She was scheduled to perform at V Festival 2007 on the Channel 4 stage on August 18 and August 19, but her manager has announced that she was cancelling and has put all her tour commitments on hold until further notice.