Amy Winehouse's Back to Black at 20: The Story, Songs and Meaning Behind the Album

Short answer: Back to Black, Amy Winehouse's second and final studio album, was released on 27 October 2006 by Island Records, so it turns 20 this week. It is a short record (11 tracks, just under 35 minutes) that blends 1960s girl-group soul and Motown with modern R&B. Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi produced it, and Sharon Jones's band the Dap-Kings played on Ronson's sessions. Most of the songs are about Winehouse's on-off relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil: guilt, grief, jealousy and heartbreak, told with a lot of dark humour. The album won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album, Winehouse won four more Grammys on the same night, and it is the UK's second best-selling album of the 21st century. The anniversary has brought a 3CD/3LP reissue (23 October 2026), a tribute concert at the Roundhouse in Camden (21 October) and a BBC broadcast.

Back to Black at a glance

Artist: Amy Winehouse
Released: 27 October 2006 (UK), Island Records
Length: 11 tracks, 34:56
Producers: Mark Ronson (six tracks) and Salaam Remi (five tracks)
Recorded: 2005–2006 in Miami and New York; mixed by Tom Elmhirst at Metropolis Studios, London
Singles: "Rehab" (23 October 2006), "You Know I'm No Good" (8 January 2007), "Back to Black" (30 April 2007), "Tears Dry on Their Own" (13 August 2007), "Love Is a Losing Game" (10 December 2007)
Big honours: Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2008 (plus an Album of the Year nomination). In 2025 the US Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

Watch: the official "Back to Black" video

Video: Amy Winehouse - Back To Black by AmyWinehouseVEVO (YouTube)

How the album came together

Winehouse's debut, Frank (2003), was a jazz-leaning record that peaked at No 13 in the UK. She later said she was unhappy with how it was marketed. By 2005 her listening had changed. She was dating Blake Fielder-Civil, and the two spent long evenings in a Camden pub playing pool to a jukebox full of 1960s girl groups, Motown and blues. That music became the sound of the next album. When Fielder-Civil left her to go back to a former girlfriend, the break gave her the subject. She wrote most of the record about it.

The album was made in two very different sessions:

Miami, with Salaam Remi. Remi had produced most of Frank. At his Instrument Zoo studio they recorded "Tears Dry on Their Own", "Some Unholy War", "Me & Mr Jones", "Just Friends" and "Addicted". The sessions were small and intimate. Winehouse sang and played guitar, Remi played most of the other instruments himself, and Vincent Henry added saxophone, flute and clarinet.
New York, with Mark Ronson. Winehouse and Ronson shared a music publisher, which is how they met in March 2006. At their first meeting she played him records by the Shangri-Las. Ronson told Mojo in 2010 that he went home and wrote a simple piano riff overnight. It became the verse chords of the title track. Ronson then brought in the Dap-Kings, and their raw, roomy 1960s sound gives "Rehab", "Back to Black" and "You Know I'm No Good" their weight.

Looking back for the reissue, Ronson said: "It's crazy that six songs made in a fit of furious musical infatuation would matter so deeply to so many people twenty years later."

What the album is about

Back to Black is not a concept album, but it tells one story from several angles: a relationship falling apart, and a narrator who blames the man, then herself, then both. What keeps it from being a wallow is the voice. Winehouse is bitterly funny, blunt about her own failings, and specific in a way pop songs rarely are. The Guardian's review of this month's tribute concert called the songs "a miraculous set of modern love songs in vintage clothing – tragic, defiant and bitterly funny". That is about as good a one-line summary as exists.

She was also stubborn about her words. In a 2015 interview with The Fader, Ronson remembered asking her to change a line in the title track's chorus because it did not rhyme. She refused, saying that was simply what had come out. The line stayed, and it is one of the most quoted moments on the record.

The songs, track by track

Original notes only; no lyrics are reproduced here. Listen on the official video or streaming services.

Rehab (Ronson). Written after Winehouse told Ronson, on a walk in New York, about the time people around her had pushed her to go into rehab and she had refused. Ronson heard the story as a chorus. It was the lead single, a top-10 hit in both the UK and the US, and it won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2008 Grammys.
You Know I'm No Good (Ronson). A confession of cheating in which the narrator does not ask for forgiveness. The Dap-Kings' horns make it swagger. A remix with Ghostface Killah followed.
Me & Mr Jones (Remi). A sharp, funny complaint rather than a love song. "Mr Jones" is widely reported to be the rapper Nas (Nasir Jones), a friend of Winehouse and a long-time Remi collaborator.
Just Friends (Remi). A loping, ska-tinged track about how hard it is to stay "just friends" with someone you are still involved with.
Back to Black (Ronson). The emotional centre: he returns to his ex and she returns to darkness. The arrangement borrows the drama of the Shangri-Las, and the music video is staged as a funeral.
Love Is a Losing Game (Ronson). A short, slow ballad that many critics rate as her finest song. At the 2026 tribute, Ronson told the crowd the chords were "so complicated and jazzy" that he did not know how to play them when she first brought it to him.
Tears Dry on Their Own (Remi). Upbeat music around a sad decision to move on. It is built on the chord pattern of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", so Ashford & Simpson share the writing credit.
Wake Up Alone (Ronson). A quiet ballad about keeping busy by day and being caught by memories at night.
Some Unholy War (Remi). A short song about loyalty: standing beside a partner in a fight, whatever the cost.
He Can Only Hold Her (Ronson). About a man holding on to a woman whose heart is somewhere else. Live, Winehouse often blended it with Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)".
Addicted (Remi). A cheeky closer about her cannabis habit, delivered with a wink. It ends a heavy album on a laugh.

Awards, sales and why it still matters

Grammys (February 2008): Best Pop Vocal Album for the record, plus Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Rehab", and Best New Artist. That made five in one night.
Sales: It was the UK's best-selling album of 2007 and is now the country's second best-selling album of the century, behind Adele's 21. Worldwide estimates range from about 20 million copies (Wikipedia's sourced figure) to "well over 25 million" (the estate's anniversary materials).
Influence: The album is widely credited with opening the door to the late-2000s wave of British soul singers. Adele's success a few years later followed that path. If you want to hear how that tradition developed, read our breakdown of Adele's "Someone Like You".
The ending: Winehouse died on 23 July 2011, aged 27. Back to Black remains her last studio album, which is part of why it carries so much weight two decades on.

What's in the 20th anniversary edition

Universal Music Recordings and Island released Back to Black (20th Anniversary Edition) on 23 October 2026, four days before the original's birthday. It comes as a 3CD deluxe set, a 3LP clear vinyl set and single-disc versions, some with alternative cover art.

Disc 1: the original 11-track album.
Disc 2: B-sides, bonus tracks and demos. These include "Valerie" (Live at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge), her covers of "Monkey Man" and "Cupid", and early demos of "You Know I'm No Good", "Me & Mr Jones", "Back to Black", "Love Is a Losing Game" and "Tears Dry on Their Own". Pitchfork reports that four demos are previously unreleased. The CD set has eight more bonus tracks than the vinyl.
Disc 3: a full live show from the Paradiso in Amsterdam on 8 February 2007, released in full for the first time.
Extras: unseen photos by the original album photographers Mischa Richter and Alex Lake, and new sleeve notes by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi.

The demos are the reason to dig in: they show the songs before the big production arrived, proof that the writing, not the retro styling, made the album last.

The Back to Black 20 tribute concert

On Wednesday 21 October 2026, Ronson and Remi reunited with the Amy Winehouse Band, led by her long-time musical director Dale Davis, at the Roundhouse in Camden. They played the album in full with a different guest singer for each song. Corinne Bailey Rae opened with "Back to Black", with Ronson on piano. Jessie Reyez took "Rehab", Skye Newman sang "Addicted", and the trio FLO did "He Can Only Hold Her". Yebba sang a stripped-down "Love Is a Losing Game" with Ronson on guitar. Jorja Smith, Lianne La Havas, Sasha Keable, Nia Smith and Baby Rose also performed, and the night ended with an ensemble "Valerie".

Reviews split in an interesting way. Variety called it a celebration of "the musical genius she was". The Guardian liked the fresh takes but argued that most singers were "eclipsed by the memory of Winehouse". The concert is being shown on BBC Two in late October, and BBC Radio 2 is airing it in Jo Whiley's show on Monday 26 October from 7 to 9pm UK time.

Where to start if you are new to it

Play the album straight through once. It is shorter than most podcasts. Then go back to "Love Is a Losing Game" and "Tears Dry on Their Own", the two songs that best show her writing, and finish with the demo versions on the anniversary edition. If you enjoy taking a classic album apart like this, try our looks at the Beatles' Abbey Road and Johnny Cash's "Hurt". For a 2026 record that is still finding its audience, see our Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber explainer, and for more all-time favourites, our list of the best pop songs of all time.

FAQ

When was Back to Black released?

On 27 October 2006 in the UK, by Island Records. The US release followed in March 2007. The 20th anniversary edition came out on 23 October 2026.

Who produced Back to Black?

Mark Ronson produced six tracks, recorded in New York with the Dap-Kings. Salaam Remi produced five, recorded in Miami.

Is Back to Black about Blake Fielder-Civil?

Mostly, yes. Winehouse wrote the bulk of the album during their break-up in 2005–2006. The two later reunited and married in 2007, and divorced in 2009.