I purchased Amy Winehouse’s debut album, Frank, the week it came out. Not because I knew of her before or because someone recommended it to me, but because I fell in love with the artwork and I have an affinity for female vocalists. I have picked up albums previously purely because of the sleeve and they have become some of my greatest friends along the musical way. Little did I know that the plastic case I had before me would hold some of the freshest and most soulful music I would ever come across.

As I proceeded to pay the cashier informed me that the music playing in-store was from her record. It was “You Sent Me Flying,” a track that would later become a monumental reminder of the time. I did however compare her vocals to Ms. Dynamite, which at the time was singlehandedly carrying British soul music. It was the start of a great friendship.

The album went from the CD onto my first generation iPod that could barely hold my stuff. The album was on heavy shuffle rotation and some tracks stood out. At first, I didn’t know whether to classify the album as Jazz or Soul or Pop. Here, you have this little white girl with a voice that didn’t seem like it could come out of her doing songs that the radio would surely not play. Moreover, she was keen on simplifying the melodies rather than overproducing the tracks. Even the singles felt too stripped-down for the music of the time.

The songs were birthed from great jazz standards but the lyrics are straight from the ‘hood. I just took it for its sheer genius although it did not fit with anything I was listening to at the time. This would turn out to be the start of an enormous contribution to pop music that Amy Winehouse has left us with, albeit curtly.

The thing about Amy Winehouse’s music, much like her demeanor, is that no bullshit is taken. The beats are raw, the vocals unaltered and the lyrics are in your face. Most people would happily sing to some of her tracks not knowing that the words are laced with sexual overtones, drug usage and political incorrectness. In most cases, you could imagine Winehouse saying what she sings about is a regular everyday conversation.

A few years later and many accidental visits from Amy Winehouse on shuffle, my best friend visits me while I was doing my Master’s and tells me of this great new throwback song about boozing. It was called “Rehab.” It was her, this time she lost the pumps, refrained from trying to be coquettish and let her hair down, literally and figuratively. This re-packaged image was strong, vintage and direct. This kind of make over cannot be summoned by fashion designers, it had to be the byproduct of personal change.

As everyone did, I fell in love with “Rehab” and made sure I pre-ordered the album that came along with it. I remember thinking the lead single was too strong for an entire album to hold up to. Boy, was I wrong. Back To Black arrived the second day of its release before a night of personal circumstances that would entirely change my life. Back To Black, along with its concept, theme, sound and motif, would become my best friend for the next couple of months, helping me through one of the toughest periods of my life. You might think this is an overstatement, but I correlate everything with music and I believe that it is mender, sonically and mentally.

As per that day, I slipped in the CD, with a broken jewel box thanks to DHL, and skipped over the first track. Every track that came was a masterpiece. Of course, some stood out more than others, but then I would later find out that some songs will personally evolve with the listener. The stark melodic backdrop, the unabashed inclusion of the soul element and, again, her mesmerizing lyrics. Every song on it spoke of a different sorrow – hymns of 21st-century qualms. I knew from then that it was only a matter of time until this girl blows up. And not in the Ms. Dynamite kind of way.

At one point during the height of her fame and amidst all the paparazzi frenzy about drugs and alcohol, I texted a friend of mine who is very fond of her, telling him “Wouldn’t it she just cement her legacy if she were to pass away now,” jokingly and in reference to Janis Joplin’s life. Little did we know, that she would die at the same age producing as many albums and Joplin.

The news of her death didn’t come as a shock to many, but it did to me. First and foremost, because I haven’t kept up with the yellow journalism about her life and second, because I was truly waiting for her to produce another album. I was eagerly awaiting anything from her. I figured, since she has taken such a long break, she surely is about to release something soon. Having her gone so early is like watching one of the pinnacles of modern music get snatched away by one tweet.

There was only one Amy Winehouse and the likelihood that someone would come up with the same sound is nought. What bothers me the most about the reaction to her death is that almost all media outlets (and even fans) concentrated on painting her as the poster-child of drug abuse and alcoholism, even when the autopsy results haven’t surfaced. Rarely did I see a mention of her amazing contribution to popular and soul music.

Amy Winehouse is solely responsible for the third-wave revival of soul music. Without her there would be no Duffy, no Daniel Merriweather and surely no Adele. At least not in the genre’s they are in now. Amy took a very beautiful sounds that popular music once made like jazz, blues, soul, neosoul and Motown merging them with a modern sensibility and packaged them for the times.  A potent formula many before her tried and miserably failed. Yet, Amy not only mastered it but made it a platform from which other singers can jump.

At the same time, many people have a great misunderstanding about addiction, its consequences and ramifications. For one to understand why a person goes through all of this can’t be judged by the snapshots the paparazzi takes, moreover, artists struggle all the time, that’s what makes their art so valuable. Judgement aside, Amy is one of the greatest artists pop music has ever seen. The brevity of her life is a sad sad story that will probably go done in history as one of music’s greatest losses.

This is a great loss for the people who loved her. A great loss for soul and jazz music. A great loss for female singers-songwriters. And, ultimately, a great loss for music as we know it today.  ”Amy Amy Amy,”  you will always be remembered your light will burn bright like the legends that came before you.