12 things you didn't know about Amy Winehouse

Her favourite song was Carole King's So Far Away, and her debut album Frank was named after Sinatra. She loved Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Mahalia Jackson, and said that her album Back to Black was inspired by music from Sixties groups like the Shangri-Las and the Shirelles.

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Sometimes literally. Patti Smith and Bryan Adams wrote tribute songs to the troubled singer, Mick Jagger invited her to join the Rolling Stones on stage, and Prince publically declared his desire to record with her. Major artists including Coldplay, George Michael, Bruno Mars and Florence + the Machine have all covered Amy's songs at high profile live shows, and Lady Gaga was reportedly in talks to play her in a biopic.

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A group of singing Austrian monks once offered to save her soul! They were signed to the same label (Universal) and felt that faith could be the answer to the problems in her songs. Amy didn't take them up on the trip to the monastery, but their album of Gregorian charts reached number one in Austria and the top 20 in the UK.

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Her charitable efforts were characteristically unconventional. She turned up at a Camden charity shop with a bag full of pristine designer clothes, including Alexander McQueen, explaining that she was having a clearout in her flat. She also posed naked for the April 2008 issue of Easy Living to raise awareness of breast cancer in young women, and helped save a local pub, The George Tavern, from closing by designing a T-shirt to protest. Much better than a giant cheque!

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Amy got her first guitar at 14, started writing songs at 15, and had a publishing deal with EMI by 18, after a manager heard her sing with the National Youth Orchestra.

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Despite her abilities and love of music, Amy's original ambition was to become a roller-skating waitress, thanks to 1973 film American Graffiti. After leaving school, she  worked as an entertainment reporter for World Entertainment News Network, but found it really dull.

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There's no doubt that Amy was gifted. Her voice spanned three octaves and one semi tone (D3-Eb6) - and it wasn't just her singing that was impressive. She modestly claimed that her award-winning album Back to Black 'wrote itself'. Friend and collaborator Mark Ronson said she came up with the first line of best-selling single Rehab as a joke while they were wandering through their local streets, and finished writing it in six hours.

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Her astounding success in the music industry was not all she wanted from life. She told Rolling Stone that 'I've always been a little homemaker' and said that, while she was truly grateful for her albums and her talent, singing was just a career and that she really wanted to be a wife and a mum.

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She had the phrase 'Daddy's Girl' tattooed on her left shoulder, and the name 'Cynthia' on her right, after her grandmother.

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Five foot two inch Amy sported a six and a half inch beehive! Although copycats for her distinctive look were everywhere at the time, she never saw herself as a fashion icon, joking that she still dressed as though it was the 1950s. Stuck in the media spotlight, she worried constantly about the way she looked, and said that her giant hairdo (styled by Tracy Trash) helped give her confidence.

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In a poll in April 2008, she beat Florence Nightingale and Mother Teresa to be named greatest heroine for British under 25-year-olds!

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She preferred performing and hanging out in laid-back pubs in Camden, many of which now have tributes to her. Her favourite was The Hawley Arms, where she enjoyed playing pool and even serving behind the bar. Although reportedly sober when she died in 2011, her favourite drink was a Rickstasy cocktail – a mix of vodka, Southern Comfort, banana liqueur and Baileys.

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