The legendary singer’s parents shared her final sincere request.
Amy Winehouse’s journal revealed a heartbreaking wish she had before her ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ.
The London-born singer would have turned 41 on September 14, but she ᴅɪᴇᴅ at the age of 27 in 2011 as a result of alcohol and substance abuse.
Only last year, before the late singer’s 40th birthday, did Winehouse’s parents, Janis Winehouse-Collins and Mitch Winehouse, search their family archives and dig through their daughter’s journals, which they then used to create the book, Amy Winehouse: In Her Words.
The book explored the star’s images and penned lyrics, as well as a heartbreaking request she made regarding the prospect of becoming famous.
Her parents discovered a bucket list in her journals, and what she had written was extremely poignant.
Aside from personal and professional aspirations, the then-hopeful adolescent had one that was quite unselfish – and as any fan of hers knows, she achieved it in her short life.
“After Amy’s ᴘᴀssɪɴɢ, we started sifting through her writings and drawings collected from her early childhood, and we started to understand more of how, behind her casual attitude, Amy had been carefully honing her talent for years,” the book explains.
It went on to say that her bedroom was her ‘haven’ and the ‘place she would always take herself off to work in’.
“We didn’t know it at the time, but she was filling notebook after notebook with lists and drawings, maps and plans, which she would constantly revise and update, often working in her bedroom until the early hours of the morning,” the parents continued.
“Amy’s lists still make us laugh,” the pair went on. “Even as a 16-year-old she had ambitions way beyond most people’s dreams. Our daughter really was one of a kind!”
One of her lists, labeled ‘Fame ambitions’, contained 14 things the ‘Valerie’ singer hopes to accomplish if she becomes famous.
The first item on the list was ‘open Dolly’s Diner’, followed by ‘to be photographed by David LaChappelle’.
Third on the list was “to do a movie where I look ugly,” as well as one day acting with Michael Madsen from Kill Bills.
She also aspired to be a ‘good buddy’ to Sarah Jessica Parker, Stella McCartney, and Eddie Izzard.
“To f**k Huey,” was number six on the list, closely followed by some more professional goals: “To collaborate with Missy Elliott + Timbaland.”
Winehouse wanted ‘to have a shoe collection (with over 300 pairs of shoes)’, which came next on the list.
The ninth goal was to have Marilyn hair, and the tenth was to meet Liz Taylor and Paul Newman, as well as avoid surgery.
But the most moving aim was number 12, in which she wished to have ‘people look up to me’.
She had no idea she would one day become one of the world’s most renowned music legends.
“Twelve years on from her death, looking back on these drawings and scribblings still makes us smile, just like Amy did,” the parents wrote.
They added: “It’s now bittersweet for us to look back on a diary entry that Amy wrote when she was a teenager: ‘Mostly I have this dream to be very famous, to work on stage.
“It’s a lifelong ambition. I want people to hear my voice and just forget their troubles for five minutes … I want to be remembered for being… just me’.”
