Mark Ronson: Amy Winehouse was ‘maybe the greatest lyricist of her generation’

Mark Ronson has remembered the late Amy Winehouse as “so funny, so charming, so charismatic” and suggested she was “maybe the greatest lyricist of her generation” ahead of the 20th anniversary of her Back To Black album.The Grammy-winning producer, 51, worked with Winehouse on several tracks from her acclaimed 2006 record, including Rehab, You Know I’m No Good and the title track.Winehouse, who died in July 2011 aged 27, also featured on Ronson’s 2007 cover of Valerie.Amy Winehouse died in 2011 aged 27 (Richard Scott/PA)PA ArchiveRonson recently led a tribute concert alongside producer Salaam Remi and the Amy Winehouse Band at London’s Roundhouse, to commemorate 20 years since the album was released on October 27 2006.Reflecting on his “inspiring” friend and collaborator during Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show on Monday, Ronson said: “It’s a wonderful thing to be part of, to see everyone on stage celebrating her, her life and her music.“Amy just was so inspiring – especially to UK artists. This whole thing is very emotional.”Discussing his involvement in Back To Black, he said: “I have mixed feelings because all that music was built on her pain and what life she had to go through.“Obviously, she had to carry that through to the end.“I was there to make sure the arrangements were good. I didn’t have to endure that trauma and pain and those things – to have essentially the same success from the record.“I always have a little bit of… It’s not guilt. It’s just something that I think about.”Mark Ronson worked with Amy Winehouse (Ian West/PA)PA Archive“I wish she was here,” Ronson added.Back To Black sold more than 20 million copies and became one of the best-selling records of all time.Reflecting on its legacy, Ronson said: “I know that people love this record, and the fact that I had something to do with it is important to people.“I’m very grateful to be associated with it.“I know of everything that I’ve ever made, this is the thing that probably means the most to people.”Recalling meeting Winehouse for the first time, the musician said: “She was just so funny, so charming, so charismatic.Read More“Even though I was a couple years older, she felt like somebody I could have known my whole life.“There was an instant just kinship there.”Ronson also reflected on his excitement at working with Winehouse before either had achieved the commercial success that would follow the album.Amy Winehouse has been described as ‘so funny, so charming, so charismatic’ (Yui Mok/PA)PA Archive“I was so excited by her talent and wrapped up in what we were doing,” he said.“I had never really had a hit record. I’d been involved with some records that everyone was like, ‘This is going to be a hit’ – but then that didn’t happen.“So I think I’d given up thinking I was ever going to have commercial success in music.“We were just making what was exciting to us. It just felt so exciting.”Winehouse’s life was explored in the 2015 documentary Amy, which chronicled her career and death, and the 2024 biopic Back To Black, starring Marisa Abela.Discussing the documentary, Ronson said: “I remember (watching it and) thinking ‘Oh my God, this woman maybe was the greatest lyricist of her generation’.“I know that it is not favourable to some people.“But I felt, at least for that first half with all that footage, like I was spending time with a friend again. I really loved that.“I think it’s unflinching, and I think it’s really hard to watch.“But I think it made me appreciate parts of Amy as an artist that I hadn’t even thought about.”