Amy Winehouse found dead at home aged 27

THE singer Amy Winehouse yesterday joined the long and tragic list of rock and roll stars who have died before their time when she was found dead at her flat.

The Ambulance Service discovered her body at around 3.54 pm yesterday in her north London home. Medics were unable to revive her.

Inquiries are continuing into the circumstances of her death, which is being treated as "unexplained" by the emergency services.

"On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene," a police statement said.

At 27, Winehouse was the same age as Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain when they passed away.

Recently there had been concerns about the deteriorating health of the singer, who has been troubled by drink and drugs problems throughout her career.

The artist had cancelled all tour dates and engagements last month after a series of erratic public appearances.

Despite her well-publicised battle with addictions and mental health problems, she was regarded as a hugely influential singer/songwriter, who had numerous successes.

On a good day, she was a charismatic performer with her trademark beehive hairdo, polka dot dresses and prominent beauty spot.

But in recent years there was little sign of the talented young woman with the powerful voice. Just last month, at the beginning of a European tour that was supposed to mark a triumphal return to form, Winehouse was booed off stage when she came on drunk.

Her father Mitch, who had repeatedly warned his daughter of the dangers of drink and drug abuse and predicted that it would kill her, was last night reportedly unaware of his daughter's death as he was on a flight to New York for a jazz festival.

Her chaotic lifestle was also of great concern to her mother Janis, who, in 2008, echoed her former husband's prediction that Winehouse would meet a premature death.

She said: 'I've known for a long time that my daughter has problems. But seeing it on screen rammed it home. I realise my daughter could be dead within the year.

"We're watching her kill herself, slowly. I've already come to terms with her dead. I've steeled myself to ask her what ground she wants to be buried in, which cemetery. Because the drugs will get her if she stays on this road.

'I look at Heath Ledger and Britney. She's on their path. It's like watching a car crash - this person throwing all these gifts away.'

Scots author Martel Maxwell, a former showbiz reporter, said: "Everyone hoped this would never happen. We knew she had her problems but this is a huge shock.

"We thought she would get out of it. There were huge hopes that she would be able to tour, she would get back to the new album.

"I spoke to her father, about ten months ago, and said ‘how do you feel when the papers were predicting that something might happen' and he said he's been the first one to say he'd almost written her obituary a few years ago, when things were really bad."

Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank was critically successful in the UK, and was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Her 2006 follow-up album Back To Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British singer to win five Grammys, including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

On 14 February 2007, she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album.

She has won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for Stronger Than Me, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for Rehab, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Love Is a Losing Game, among other prestigious distinctions. The album was the third biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom.