On this date in 2008, Amy Winehouse won five prizes at this year's Grammy Awards, including song of the year and record of the year, both for her single 'Rehab', and best new artist.
A shooting star that flamed out too soon, winehouse would die of alcohol poisoning just a little more than three years later.
"Rehab" is a song written and performed by Winehouse, from her second and final studio album Back to Black (2006).
Produced by Mark Ronson, the lyrics are autobiographical and address Winehouse's refusal to enter a rehabilitation clinic. "Rehab" was released as the lead single from Back to Black on 23 October 2006, and it peaked at number 7 in the United Kingdom on its Singles Chart and number 9 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Winehouse's only top 10 hit in the US.
"Rehab" has become a critical and commercial success internationally, and has been referred to as Winehouse's "signature song".
It won three Grammy Awards at the 50th ceremony, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[5] It also won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.[6] Winehouse's public battle with drug and alcohol addiction, and subsequent death, have contributed to the song's continuing popularity and appearance in the media.
The song has been covered by a list of artists, such as Hot Chip, Lea Salonga, Seether, and the Jamaican Mento band The Jolly Boys.
"Rehab" was produced by Mark Ronson and released as the album's lead single in October 2006 in the UK and January 2007 elsewhere. The song addresses Winehouse's refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre after her management team encouraged her to go.
"I asked my dad if he thought I needed to go. He said no, but I should give it a try. So I did, for just 15 minutes. I went in said 'hello' and explained that I drink because I am in love and have screwed up the relationship. Then I walked out."
Winehouse later changed her management company.
Ronson expanded on the songwriting process when interviewed by DJ Zane Lowe for the BBC Radio's Radio 1's Stories, in an episode broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on Monday 18 July 2011:
"I was walking down the street with Amy. We were in New York and we'd been working together for about a week and we were walking to some store. She wanted to buy a present for her boyfriend and she was telling me about a specific time in her life that was.... I feel bad, like, talking about a friend like this, but I think I've told this story enough times.... but she hit, like, a certain low and her dad came over to try and talk some sense into her. And she was like, "He tried to make me go to rehab and I was like, 'Pfft, no no no.'" And the first thing I was like, "ding ding ding ding ding." Like, I mean I'm supposed to be like, "How was that for you?" and all I'm like is, "We've got to go back to the studio."
Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, confirms Ronson's story about the origins of the song in his biography, Amy, My Daughter (2012). He writes that Ronson and Winehouse inspired each other musically, adding that Amy had written that line in one of her notebooks years before and told him that she was planning to write a song about that day.
After Ronson heard the line during his and Amy's conversation in New York, he suggested they turn it into a song. The book says that was the moment when the song "came to life".
"Rehab" is a soul and R&B song.
In the lyrics Winehouse mentions "Ray" and "Mr. Hathaway", in reference to Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway.
