Previously unheard Amy Winehouse demo recorded when she was 17 years old surfaces online

My Own Way was recorded by the late singer in 2001 to attract the attention of record labels.
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A previously unheard demo recorded by Amy Winehouse has surfaced online. 

The track, called My Own Way, was recorded in 2001 with London musician Gil Cang and songwriters James McMillan and Maryanne Morgan, was made to attract the attention of record labels.

The demo's release may come as a surprise to Amy fans as all of her demos were believed to have been destroyed several years ago by her label Universal. Listen below: 

Speaking to the Camden New Journal, Gil recalls the song was recorded in just three takes, adding: "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.

“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. We were struck immediately by her talent – it was a real jaw on the floor moment.

"We were like wow, yes. I’ve had it knocking about for so long,” he added. “I found it again last week and thought – I’ll put it out there so people could hear it.” 

Aside from a couple of guest features, Amy release only one song after 2006's Back To Black before her death in 2011, a duet with Tony Bennett called Body and Soul. Look back at Amy's complete Official UK Chart history here.

Universal released a posthumous album of B-sides and rarities called Lioness: Hidden Treasures shortly after her death, but the public's reaction to it led to label boss David Jospeh to destroy the rest of her unfinished demos. 

"It was a moral thing," he told The Guardian in 2015. "Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch. It now can’t happen on anyone else’s."

Article image: Rex

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