LONDON — Few artists summed up their own career in a single song — a single line — as well as Amy Winehouse.
“They tried to make me go to rehab,” she sang on her world-conquering 2006 single, “Rehab.” “I said, ‘No, no, no.’ ” Occasionally, she said yes, but to no avail: Repeated stints in hospitals and clinics couldn’t stop alcohol and drugs scuttling the career of a singer whose distinctive voice, rich mix of influences and heart-on-her-sleeve sensibility seemed to promise great things.
In her short lifetime, Winehouse too often made headlines because of drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, destructive relationships and abortive performances. But it’s her small yet powerful body of recorded music that will be her legacy.
The singer, 27, was found dead Saturday by ambulance crews called to her home in London’s Camden area, a youth-culture mecca known for its music scene, its pubs — and the availability of illegal drugs. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Tony Bennett, who recorded the pop standard “Body and Soul” with Winehouse in March for an upcoming duets album, called her “an artist of immense proportions.”
“She was an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist, and I am truly devastated that her exceptional talent has come to such an early end,” he said.
The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood said he was dedicating Saturday’s reunion performance of his band the Faces to Winehouse.
“It’s a very sad loss of a very good friend I spent many great times with,” he said.
Winehouse was something rare in an increasingly homogenized music business — an outsized personality and an unclassifiable talent. She shot to fame with the album “Back to Black,” whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse — with her black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos — one of music’s most recognizable stars.
“I didn’t go out looking to be famous,” Winehouse told The Associated Press when the album was released. “I’m just a musician.” But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame, and by Winehouse’s demons. Tabloids lapped up the erratic stage appearances, drunken fights, and stints in hospitals and rehab clinics.
Last month, Winehouse canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Booed and jeered off stage, she flew home, and her management said she would take time off to recover.
Musicians who died at 27
Known in pop culture as “The 27 Club,” this unfortunate collective of stars remains forever frozen in fans’ minds at that age, with many of them believed to have had their best work yet ahead of them.
•Blues legend Robert Johnson, whose cause of death in 1938 has been disputed.
•Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, who drowned in a swimming pool in 1969.
•Singer Janis Joplin, who died of an apparent overdose in 1970.
•Rock legend Jimi Hendrix, who died of asphyxiation in 1970.
•The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, who died of reported heart failure.
•Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994.
