Amy Winehouse's 2007 interview revisited

Twenty years ago, the powerful Back to Black was released, providing an opportunity to revisit this interview with Amy Winehouse from 2007. At that time, Back to Black positioned her as a new soul diva, marking a significant moment in her career and in music.

A unique interview atmosphere

Amy Winehouse is an incredible presence, especially her voice, which places her alongside the greatest interpreters. Meeting with an artist strangely detached. It was in a hotel room in Montparnasse that we met Amy Winehouse, face to face, this summer.

Amy Winehouse's appearance

Amy Winehouse is a tiny person, nothing like the drugged-out diva one might imagine from her album covers. She is a sort of over-makeup goblin, a little sister with a drink, dressed like Marge Simpson, dragging on her tattooed pocket-sized body a chest a bit too large for her, overshadowed in all senses by two large sad and weary eyes.

A quirky moment during the interview

Just before our first question, she makes a brief hand gesture and gets up from her chair, asking for a bit of help to open a skylight. She places a long finger on her lips as if to say be quiet and then we hear some bird noises, which seem to please her greatly.

The interview duration

Then she goes back to her chair, takes out her Royal Cheese with a crinkling of paper like in American series and says "I'm listening, man." She granted us twenty minutes of interview, that's the rate for everyone. Because after that she gets bored.

Amy Winehouse's future plans

"I would like to make a third album, but honestly, I would rather have children." The only moment where one feels her a bit inside is when one sees her perform butter during her sound checks, an absolutely sublime version of Doo Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill.

Reflections on her life

"Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing on stage. As a child, I didn't want to be a singer, just be a normal teenager, hang out with my friends, find a decent job, earn money for shopping and go dancing on Saturday nights. In fact, I always dreamed of having a normal life, I think. I was never a very ambitious girl.

Her musical influences

"My father was a jazz fan. We listened to the great classics on loop, from Dizzy Gillespie to Coltrane. I was in my room, and when I heard something good, I would go out and ask 'Hey, what is that?' and I would note the name of the song on a piece of paper. When I was alone at home, I would go look for the titles I had retained in my father's record collection, play them at full volume and sing everything that came to mind trying to follow the melodies.

Her impact on music

There is in her this desire to sacrifice none of the influences, to claim with nonchalance both the heritage of the great jazz singers and the MTV culture. To dig with class and accuracy a nice popular vein, which would not deny the great Dusty Springfield - whom she readily cites as a reference.

Her future in music

On October 29, she should be on the stage of the Zénith in Paris (the Olympia, originally planned, was revealed in a few days of rental to be too small) to sing once again, in Paris, the songs from her second album Back to Black, before, it is whispered, returning to work to consider a third album. Some also announce that she will be the interpreter of the theme song for the next James Bond and that she could even play a James Bond girl role alongside Daniel Craig.