Amy Winehouse’s appetites for music and self-destruction often came in equal measure. With her huge signature beehive hairdo, smoky eye make-up and extraordinary voice, Winehouse stood out from the crowd. Her vocal style as well as her vulnerability led to comparisons with greats such as Billie Holiday.

Winehouse’s distinctive style led to the tattooed singer being hailed a style icon, becoming the muse for Karl Lagerfeld and once being voted the “ultimate heroine” among UK youngsters.

In February 2008, Winehouse was on a career high when she won five prizes at the Grammy awards, despite being absent from the ceremony. The clutch of awards made her the first British female artist to win five Grammys in one night. But with the highs came the lows and trouble was never far away from Winehouse, who had a talent for pouring her raw emotions into her work. She cancelled a tour this year after a disastrous appearance in Serbia when she was booed by the angry crowd. Despite her wild girl image Amy Jade Winehouse was from a stage school background.

Born on September 14, 1983, she attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where classmates included Billie Piper. Brought up with a love for jazz, she grew up in a Jewish household in North Finchley, north London, with father Mitch and mother Janis, who were later divorced. Winehouse claimed she was asked to leave the Sylvia Young Theatre School and from there she went to a private school in Mill Hill. Intent on a music career after leaving school, she performed in pubs while working as a fledgling journalist for a showbiz news agency. She was discovered while performing with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and signed to a division of 19 Management, the media empire of Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller. Frank was a jazz-tinged debut which showcased her powerful voice. The double-platinum selling album was nominated for two Brits and the Mercury Music Prize, and won her an Ivor Novello songwriting award.

It was the soulful and honest Back To Black which propelled Winehouse into superstardom. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number seven, making Winehouse the highest-debuting British female artist in the history of the US album chart. With Back To Black, Winehouse moved away from jazz and took inspiration from 60s girl groups such as The Supremes.

She was crowned Queen of the Brits after picking up the coveted gong for best solo female. Winehouse may have been a huge hit with the listeners – but she hasn’t always seemed to be her own greatest fan. Winehouse should have been enjoying the fruits of her success following her second album.

But instead the singer, whose tiny frame looked increasingly skeletal, spoke about her problems with self-harm, bulimia and alcohol abuse Rehab, the first single from Back To Black, is about her refusal to seek help at a clinic for people with alcohol problems.

After winning a Vodafone Live Music Award, Winehouse sent the landlord of her local pub in her beloved Camden, the Hawley Arms, to collect the gong. And the outspoken star guaranteed herself acres of publicity by criticizing her rivals, from Madonna (“an old lady”) to Dido (“bland”) and Katie Melua (“shit”).

Married life for Winehouse did not get off to a great start, with husband Blake Fielder-Civil – whom she married in 2007 – spending time in jail. Fielder-Civil had pleaded guilty in 2008 to inflicting grievous bodily harm on pub landlord James King, 36, and also to perverting the course of justice. Throughout the court proceedings, Winehouse showed her loyalty to her husband by attending hearings and mouthing words of support. Paparazzi pictures of Winehouse’s increasingly bizarre nocturnal activities shocked the nation and provided regular tabloid fodder. The star has been pictured walking through central London in blood-soaked shoes, with a bruised neck and bandaged arms. Fielder-Civil was seen with blood streaming out of cuts on his face. Winehouse claimed later she attacked Fielder-Civil after he caught her self-harming before attempting to take drugs with a prostitute. In August 2007, Winehouse was admitted to a London hospital following an overdose. The star was said to have come close to death after taking cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and marijuana. The singer pulled out of a string of tour dates, then quit rehab yet again, to the dismay of her parents. In June 2008 Winehouse was taken to hospital after a fainting episode. There were hopes that she could be returning to full health after she spent eight months on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. Her mother Janis said in 2009 that her daughter had “done so well getting healthy again”. She had been granted a quickie divorce from Fielder-Civil on the grounds of her adultery the same year. Mrs Winehouse expressed her fears at the time that the pair could be reconciled, saying: “We all hope it’s not true they’re back in

The pair could be reconciled, saying: “We all hope it’s not true they’re back in touch, but Amy is like a child. “She says, ’I love Blake, I love him’, and it’s hard to talk her out of it.” Fielder-Civil is currently in jail, having been sentenced to 32 months in prison in June for burglary and possession of an imitation firearm. As well as critical plaudits, Winehouse’s lyrics even merited academic study. In 2008, students at Cambridge University were asked to Analise her lyrics in a final-year English exam. Undergraduates were invited to compare Winehouse’s songwriting to ballads by Bob Dylan and Holiday, as well as the more scholarly Sir Walter Raleigh in an examination question. One critic said her song Love Is A Losing Game evoked “images of cigarette smoke, empty vodka bottles and smudged mascara” and was “perhaps the most heartbreaking thing she’s ever recorded”.