“It pissed me off that her core team didn’t just pull everything,” says Nick Shymansky – the man who managed Winehouse from 1999 until he was replaced by her live promoter in 2006, months before the late singer’s career-defining album Back To Black was released. “Sing or give me my money back,” screams an audience member, filming on his phone The date was 18 June 2011 one month later, after years of struggling with drug and alcohol addictions, an eating disorder and depression, Winehouse died in her Camden home, of accidental alcohol poisoning.
An hour late, she stops to talk to her band before sitting on a speaker, staring blankly into the crowd with her chin resting on her hand and refusing to sing. There’s an especially harrowing scene in Asif Kapadia’s new Amy Winehouse documentary where the singer skips onstage to greet a booing audience in Belgrade, Serbia.
