Brow Beat

Amy Winehouse Records “Back to Black” in This Wrenching Clip From Her New Documentary

Amy Winehouse.

Photo by SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images

Amy, Asif Kapadia’s new documentary about Amy Winehouse, has been widely acclaimed for its honest portrayal of the late singer’s life. For a glimpse of that candor, look no further than this newly-released clip, which shows Winehouse and a baby-faced Mark Ronson during the March 2006 recording of “Back to Black.”

Given the context of the clip, it’s hard not to feel a lump in your throat. The song is the title track of the album that won Winehouse five Grammys, worldwide celebrity, and flocks of fawning critics—and she sings it with an easy, tender command, tackling her heartbreak with her hands in her pockets, belting a masterful melody that, according to producer Ronson, she wrote “in two or three hours.” It’s Winehouse at her best, and watching her alone in the booth, cutting vocals, you see the genius that made her substance addiction all the more tragic.