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Previously unheard demo from 17-year-old Amy Winehouse revealed

A previously unheard Amy Winehouse has made its way online. (PA)
A previously unheard Amy Winehouse has made its way online. (PA)

It’s been almost seven years since Amy Winehouse died, but while the star may be gone she’s certainly not forgotten as an unearthed demo has been made public.

The three-and-a-half minute song sample of My Own Way was uploaded by Gil Cang – a Camden-based musician and composer who obtained the recording while the singer was trying to get her big break.

Cang has now revealed how he co-wrote it with James McMillan as a 17-year-old Winehouse was trying to find a record deal prior to Island Records snapping her up in 2003.

‘We’d been writing quite a lot of pop tunes, doing a lot of pop promos with various artists who would come in, many of various, dubious talent,’ Cang told the Camden New Journal.

‘It was at a particularly dire time in the pop world – lots of terrible, terrible girl bands and boy bands and we had to make something for them. Amy came in to see us, opened her mouth and just blew us all away.’

Unsurprisingly, they were amazed by her voice and aura. ‘We were struck immediately by her talent – it was a real jaw-on-the-floor moment. We were like, “wow, yes”,’ he said.

The news will be a gift to fans, especially because her unfinished demos were destroyed after her death as a means of preventing anyone from creating cash-in posthumous albums.

Winehouse was found dead on 23 July of 2011, where she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her death was officially declared ‘misadventure’ and was thought to have been caused by her high blood alcohol levels.

Last year it was revealed that the singer’s life story was to be turned into a West End stage show.

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