Don't Judge Amy Winehouse by Her Demons

‘It seemed almost accidental the way her fingers would move around the fret board,’ Ronson said. ‘She sometimes seemed to be strumming around, looking for the next chord, but the songs would just come out of her so fluently.’

So, which ones will stand the test of time? For me, Rehab might have set a benchmark for pop, but it is the more lovelorn songs that people will still be playing 20 years from now — the hypnotic minor chords of Back To Black, the guilt-ridden You Know I’m No Good and the gut-wrenching Love Is A Losing Game.

With her haunting, heartbreak ballads, Amy brought something real to pop. At its best, the music she left has a timeless quality: she may have been an alumna of the Brit School, but Amy Winehouse was also a British great. Godmother to a new soul star

Along with her unforgettable music, Amy Winehouse left a living legacy. Dionne Bromfield, the singer’s goddaughter, was moulded in the shape of her mentor. Minus the drugs.

The 15-year-old schoolgirl has already brought out two Sixties soul-inspired albums on Lioness Records (set up by Amy) and her musical education was funded by her godmother. Amy taught her guitar and songwriting, and even acted as her backing singer.

Despite the age gap, the two were extremely close — a fact which led to raised eyebrows, particularly when they attended showbusiness events together, Amy often looking the worse for wear.

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Away from the cameras, their lives were even more entwined. When I interviewed Dionne recently, she revealed that not only did she see Amy three times a week, she also regularly had sleepovers at her house.

‘She’ll phone and say come over,’ Dionne told me. ‘We’ll watch films, cook, do our nails, play scrabble, and then go to bed.’

This week the young singer was understandably devastated. ‘I feel like a part of my soul has departed with the beautiful songbird Amy,’ she wrote on her Twitter page on Tuesday before the singer’s funeral.

It is going to be a tough time for Dionne. Immediately after being told the news of her godmother’s death, in an act which is testament to her professionalism, she went on stage in Pontypridd, where she was supporting boyband The Wanted. Since then, though, she has cancelled all future dates.

So can Dionne succeed without Amy around? ‘She is genuinely talented and there is a good buzz about her,’ says HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo. ‘I think she can still have a good career in front of her.

She needs to draw inspiration from Amy; hopefully what has happened might make her more determined to succeed.’