This past week marked what would have been Amy Winehouse’s 33rd birthday since she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011. Since her passing, Amy’s legacy continues through The Amy Winehouse Foundation, started by her father Mitch. According to the website, “The Amy Winehouse Foundation’s mission is supporting and empowering children and young adults in need through music therapy and music education and works to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people.” The Foundation works to support musical education, offers scholarships, and helps young adults navigate through rehab.
This year, the foundation is having artists cover Amy’s songs for a new channel on Youtube. Mitch talked about it during an exhibition at North London’s Zebra One Gallery, telling press and attendees, ”we’ve got this new YouTube channel where stars all over the world are going to do an Amy track and however many hits we get after the first two-million, we start making money for the foundation. Leona Lewis is going to do one, Lady Gaga will do one, and a few other stars. Hopefully it’s going to be a source of revenue for the foundation. We need money and that’s a great way to get cash and remember Amy, go on YouTube and have fun.”
Amy’s stepmother, Jane, also spoke of the charity and the project, saying “This project will make such a profound difference to so many young women, enabling them to have a safe environment in which to re-build their lives and put into practice all the learning they have acquired through their treatment journey. Fresh starts are difficult to make; full of challenges, but at Amy’s Place we will give young women the tools and support to help them make this a reality. There is a huge lack of support to meet the needs of women in this area and we hope Amy’s Place will show just how much more effective we can be.”
British superstar Adele has also recently paid tribute to Amy; she tweeted a photo of Winehouse for her Birthday, before speaking more about what Amy meant to her as an artist during a concert the same night. “I feel like I owe 90 percent of my career to [Winehouse],” she said. “Because of her, I picked up a guitar and because of her, I wrote my own songs. The songs I got signed on were the songs that I wrote completely on my own – if it wasn’t for her, that wouldn’t have happened.”
“I used to see her on TV or in magazine shoots with a pink electric guitar and I used to think she was the coolest [explicative] on the face of the Earth,” she continued, adding, “I’m obviously completely happy with all the music that she left behind because it’s all genius. But every day I wish I could hear a new song from her.”
She then dedicated her astounding cover of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” to Amy as the crowd held up their glowing phones in tribute.
