All About Amy Winehouse's Brother Alex Winehouse

Amy Winehouse revealed her deepest life in her soulful, bluesy music – but few people knew her like her brother Alex Winehouse.

“It was boring, frustrating, a hassle,” he said Guard 2013. “But she was also incredibly generous, very caring. She would do anything for anyone, she really would. She was loyal – like a sister, a daughter and a friend.”

He continued: “She was probably the most loyal friend to people I’ve ever known… She was a really good person.”

At only 23 years old, the singer experienced a meteoric rise to fame with the release of her album in 2006. Back to black. The record won five Grammy Awards and sold more than 16 million copies worldwide, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

However, amid her success, Amy struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and a troubled marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil. On 23 July 2011, Amy died aged 27 of “alcohol poisoning” in London.

Remembering the life of Amy Winehouse in photos

More than 10 years after her death, her music lives on — in October 2023, the video for her single “Back to Black” reached one billion views on YouTube.

Alex played a significant role in keeping Amy’s memory and legacy alive. His family collaborated with the filmmakers on the May 2024 biopic Back to blackdirected by Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Marisa Abel.

He is also the creative director of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which educates children about the risks of substance abuse and supports women in recovery. In addition, Alex and his wife Riva helped organize the exhibition “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” at the Jewish Museum in London.

Here’s everything you need to know about Amy Winehouse’s brother, Alex Winehouse.

He grew up in London with Amy

Janis Winehouse with son Alex at the Amy Winehouse Foundation Ball on November 20, 2013 in London, England.

Dave J Hogan/Getty

Mitch and Janis Winehouse welcomed Alex in 1980, and Amy arrived four years later on September 14, 1983. Their parents divorced when they were children.

“In all respects she was just a normal Jewish kid from north London, doing normal kid things, going to drama class, loving her grandma, mom and dad, loving her brother,” Mitch told PEOPLE in 2023.

In the same year, the family published a book, Amy Winehouse: in her own wordsoffering insight into her and Alex’s childhood, including photos of them as children and lists she made of her future goals.

“Amy devoured films, musicals, novels and poetry, or drew inspiration from our family life in North London or the twists and turns of her many friendships,” Mitch and Janis wrote in the foreword to the book.

Royalties from the book went to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

All about Amy Winehouse’s parents, Mitch and Janis Winehouse

Amy’s death affected Alex and their parents

Mitch Winehouse, Alex Winehouse and Janis Winehouse watch as flowers are laid outside 30 Camden Square on July 25, 2011.

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The world mourned Amy when she died at the age of 27 on July 23, 2011, but no one was more affected than her closest family members.

The day after her death, Mitch, Janis and Alex released a joint press statement, per Guard.

“Our family is saddened by the loss of Amy, a wonderful daughter, sister, niece. She leaves a gaping hole in our lives,” it said. “We have come together to remember her and would appreciate some privacy and space at this terrible time.”

The death of Amy Winehouse: the details behind her sudden death

Alex is married and has a son

In November 2011, Alex reportedly married Riva Lefton Daily mail.

The couple has at least one child, a son, Cosmo, born on September 11, 2014.

“He’s beautiful,” Mitch said The Telegraph a few days after the grandchildren’s birth.

The family collaborated on the 2024 biopic Back to black

Alex and Mitch Winehouse at the Morton Metropolis Gallery Opening on February 10, 2010 in London, England.

Dave M. Bennett/Getty

In 2016, the film Amy won the Oscar for best documentary — but the singer’s family was vocally against the project from the start and blocked an attempt at a biopic in 2011.

Ten years after Amy’s death, her family cooperated with the BBC Amy Winehouse: 10 years later. In that documentary, her closest family members revealed the personal side of the singer.

“I don’t feel like the world knew the real Amy, the one I raised,” Janis said in a press release, according to the BBC. “I look forward to the opportunity to offer an understanding of her roots and a deeper insight into the real Amy.”

Most recently, the movie 2024 Back to black it was also made with family guidance. “So we’re going to come back, showing Amy the way she was,” Mitch said The morning after podcast in 2020.

Alex works for the Amy Winehouse Foundation

Alex Winehouse and Mitch Winehouse address the crowd during the US launch of the Amy Winehouse Foundation on April 11, 2012 in New York City.

Michael Loccisano/Getty

On September 14, 2011, which would have been Amy’s 28th birthday, the family launched the Amy Winehouse Foundation. The organization educates children about the dangers of drug use and also provides music therapy. In 2016, he started Amy’s Place, a halfway house for women who have recently left rehab programs.

“Today, the Amy Winehouse Foundation helps thousands of young people feel supported and informed, so they can better manage their emotional well-being and make informed decisions about things that can affect their lives,” according to the foundation’s website.

Speaking with Guard ahead of Amy’s retrospective exhibition, Alex shared the family’s reasoning behind creating the foundation. “Dad had two choices – he could let it destroy him or use Amy’s memory to empower himself to do something good,” he said..

For his part, Alex left a career as a music journalist to become the organization’s creative director.

He also explained why he keeps his memories of Amy sparse: “If I’m going to talk, it’s because … we, the foundation, are doing something really, really cool. I’m not going to talk for the sake of talking.”

Alex and his wife curated an exhibition about Amy

Janis Winehouse, Mitch Winehouse, Jane Winehouse and Alex Winehouse attend the World Premiere of StudioCanal’s ‘Back to Black’ on April 8, 2024.

StillMoving for StudioCanal/Shutterstock

Originally an exhibition that opened at London’s Jewish Museum in 2013, “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” was a collection of Amy’s personal items and family artifacts. Alex and his wife Riva helped curate the collection, which includes photographs of the siblings growing up in North London.

“Amy was someone who was incredibly proud of her Jewish-London roots,” Alex told the BBC. “While other families would go to the beach on a sunny day, we would always go to the East End… I hope, in this most appropriate place, that the world will be able to see this other side, not just Amy, but our typical Jewish family. ”

The exhibition traveled to San Francisco, Vienna and Amsterdam, among other destinations, and reopened in London in 2017. Australian Jewish News.

Throughout the exhibition, Alex wrote explanations of some objects. “It’s a recording of a girl who, at her deepest core, was just a little Jewish kid from north London with a lot of talent who, more than anything, just wanted to be true to her heritage,” read one headline.

The other thing was Claudia Roden The Book of Jewish Foodwhich Alex gave to Amy for her birthday in 2002.

“I bought it for her because she wanted to know how to make chicken soup,” he wrote. “It wasn’t a particularly great creation. However, her meatballs were always excellent.”

Alex said he could still feel Amy’s presence

In 2021, Mitch spoke with Jewish news about how Amy is still present in their lives.

“I feel it all the time and I know Janis feels it too,” he added. “My son Alex says he saw her in a pale blue light. We all feel her presence.”

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Source: HIS Education