When Amy Winehouse released “Back to Black” 20 years ago this month, the album sliced through the bop and bubble of mid-2000s pop with its rasp, anguish and untamable brio. Five years later, her death at age 27 from alcohol poisoning left a confessional chasm that others would spend decades trying to fill.
On Wednesday night, some of Winehouse’s spirit was back as thousands gathered for a tribute concert in her London neighborhood to celebrate the album’s anniversary. For some of her onetime collaborators, it was a reunion. But in her place at the microphone, other singers belted out Winehouse’s raw lyrics.
No one was there to canonize her: Winehouse, whose struggles with drugs, alcohol and mental illness were almost as famous as her music, was no saint. Instead, it was a chance for fans to honor an artist who gave their own pain a sound and a shape.
“The one thing she was put on this Earth to do was the one thing she couldn’t shoulder,” said Rich Watkins, 34, an audience member at the Roundhouse, where the concert took place. He had also struggled with addiction, he said, which also made it hard to watch Winehouse tumble — and watch the tabloids hound her — as she self-destructed in the years before her death.
He described “Back to Black,” an 11-song, 34-minute opus, as “both the strongest and most fragile album anyone has ever created.”
Wednesday’s event, which was recorded for television and will air on the BBC on Saturday, had a more subdued feel than concerts in the days when the struggling singer would slur her words or show up late to performances. Although there was plenty of eyeliner and leopard print in the crowd, there were also a lot of sensible sweaters and backpacks at the coat check.
But it was still a chance for fans to connect, live, with Winehouse’s music.
Some people had come from across Britain for the occasion, or even farther afield — such as Johnny Acevedo, 38, who lives in the United States and has tattoos of Winehouse’s face on his arms. Whenever he’s in London, he walks through the Camden neighborhood where Winehouse lived and worked. These days, a statue of her stands in a market nearby.
“Her spirit is here,” Acevedo said.
Some of the musicians in the band onstage had played with Winehouse. But the singers were from the generation of women who came up after Winehouse swept the 2008 Grammy Awards, taking record of the year for “Back to Black,” song of the year for its first track, “Rehab,” and also best new artist.
They were there to pay homage to her — and to put their own spins on her work. Winehouse did that, too, said Mark Ronson, one of her main collaborators, in an interview before the show. She liked to improvise, he said: “She’s at heart a jazz singer, so it means changing every melody each time you do it.”
The goal was never to replicate her voice or copy her style, Ronson said. “Nobody’s Amy,” he added. “We’re not here to compare anybody. No one’s trying to fill shoes.”
Her early death contributed to her icon status, Ronson added, like Tupac, Kurt Cobain or Aaliyah. “We love them,” he said, “and they mean even more to us because we know we’re not getting anything more out of them.”
Darcus Beese, a music executive who signed Winehouse over 20 years ago, said it was all still raw. “I find it very hard to be at home and listen to Amy,” he said, adding that “Back to Black” wasn’t made for commercial success, but came from somewhere deep inside Winehouse.
“The record didn’t bend to the world,” Beese said. “The world bent to the record.”
For many, Winehouse’s raging individuality made her a rebel’s rebel, whether through her voice — a moan, a sob, a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-pan growl — or her lyrics, so often frank, unexpected or vulgar.
But for fans, it all came down to her rawness — radical, candid and close. Her songs helped many through the anguish of growing up, of messing up, of not measuring up — even if her friends said her agony may have destroyed her.
“You know, when someone’s so completely their own person to the exception of anything else?” said Paul O’Duffy, another collaborator. Winehouse had a brutal truth, he said, a raw thing she wanted to say that spoke to others.
“What a gift that was to give to people, but then it was like a curse for her,” he said. “You wanted to absorb that. But you wouldn’t want to be her.”
Winehouse is still gaining new fans — many of whom said they had first been introduced to her music by their parents.
Some devotees at the concert, like Chloe Bird, were babies when “Back in Black” came out. Bird, 22, said she loved seeing graffiti of the singer in Camden, which in Winehouse’s day was a heart of London’s music scene. “It’s like she’s never forgotten,” Bird said.
Others weren’t even alive for the album’s release. “I love Amy,” said Lucy Alcock, 19, who had winged her eyeliner out wide in homage to Winehouse. That’s why she came to the concert, Alcock said: “I thought it was the closest chance I’m ever going to get to see her.”
Some fans danced. A few sang. At least one woman cried. But that unmistakable crackle of electricity just wasn’t there. During the most beloved songs, fans stood behind a phalanx of phones, watching songs that got them through breakups and breakdowns on their tiny screens.
For people who had experienced Winehouse live, it wasn’t the same without her.
Jon Grover, 44, was disappointed. He had driven three hours from Somerset, in western England. He had seen Winehouse at the Glastonbury music festival years ago and remembered her power. Now, he frowned up at the stage. “None of them are anywhere near as good as her,” he said.
But many said it was worth the effort.
Jermo Esajas, had bought a ticket only that morning and scrambled to travel over from Amsterdam. The last-minute flight alone was about 250 pounds (over $330), he said, on top of the concert ticket and a hotel room. “There goes my salary,” joked Mr. Esajas, 51, a chef.
But he wouldn’t miss it. He almost felt like he owed it to her.
“I was so in love with her,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it for anyone else.”
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