Amy Winehouse's last concert: Belgrade, June 18, 2011

About the artist

Amy Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983, in Enfield, Middlesex, and grew up in Southgate, north London. Her father drove a taxi and her mother was a pharmacist; many of her uncles on her mother's side were professional jazz musicians. The house was full of Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, and as a teenager she was drawn to American R&B and hip-hop such as TLC.^[1]

Her break came through her close friend, the singer Tyler James, who passed her demo to an A&R scout looking for a jazz vocalist. She signed to Island Records and, at 20, released Frank at the end of 2003. It went platinum, was shortlisted for the 2004 Mercury Prize and earned two Brit Award nominations, and its single "Stronger Than Me" won the Ivor Novello award for best contemporary song.^[1]

Back to Black (2006) reached back to 1950s and '60s rock 'n' roll, R&B and soul, with Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson sharing production. It went to No. 1 in the UK,^[1] peaked at No. 2 in the U.S., and was taken on the road with the Dap-Kings, Sharon Jones's band.^[2] Its lead single "Rehab," drawn from her own refusal to enter a treatment facility when it was suggested to her, was a UK Top 10 hit.^[1] At the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008 she won Record and Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Rehab," Best Pop Vocal Album for Back to Black, and Best New Artist — a then-record five awards, as GRAMMY.com puts it. She took part by satellite from London.^[2]

Why this was the last show

After 2008, Winehouse largely stayed off the road. When she announced a run of dates in Brazil on her website on November 17, 2010, Reuters described them as her first official shows in two years and her first proper live dates since 2008. She had pulled out of several high-profile bookings along the way, including Coachella in 2009. In 2010 she joined Mark Ronson onstage at a London club in July and played four songs at the October launch of her Fred Perry clothing line, and "It's My Party," on Quincy Jones's compilation Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, was her first new recording since the 2006 album.^[3]

The Brazilian dates ran from Florianópolis on January 8, 2011, through Rio de Janeiro on the 11th and Recife on the 13th to São Paulo on the 15th. All but Rio were part of the Summer Soul Festival, and Janelle Monáe was on every bill.^[3]

A European summer followed on paper: 12 dates starting in Belgrade on June 18 and ending in Bucharest, Romania, on August 15.^[4] The itinerary included BBK Live in Bilbao, the Paléo Festival in Nyon and the Piazza Grande in Locarno in Switzerland, Lucca in Italy, Wiesen in Austria and a festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland.^[5]

Three weeks before the opening night, on May 27, her spokesman Chris Goodman said she had entered a London treatment facility on "doctors' advice," with a view to being ready for the European shows.^[6] On June 2 she left after about a week, to continue as an outpatient. Goodman did not say why she had gone in, but said she was "raring to go." Her website was listing the June 18 Belgrade date.^[7] Belgrade, then, was meant to be the first night of a tour, not a farewell, and nothing about it was billed as one.

On June 19, the day after the show, the dates in Istanbul and Athens that week were cancelled. According to AFP, her spokesperson said she had wanted to honor her commitments but had agreed to return to Britain because she could not give her best performance, and that she wanted to apologize to the fans who had been waiting.^[8]

On June 21, Goodman announced that Winehouse was "withdrawing from all scheduled performances." Everyone involved, the statement said, wanted to help her return to her best, and she would be given "as long as it takes."^[5][4][9] Every remaining date through Bucharest was gone.^[4]

She appeared before an audience only once more. On Wednesday, July 20, at the iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in Camden, her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield was opening for the Wanted, and Winehouse joined her for the final song, a cover of the Shirelles' "Mama Said."^[10] She did not take the microphone; according to ET Online and HuffPost, she danced and clapped along beside Bromfield.^[11][12]

Three days later, on July 23, 2011, Winehouse died at her home in London. She was 27. A second inquest in January 2013 reached the same conclusion as the first in 2011: death by misadventure, from alcohol toxicity.^[13][10] She never returned to the tour, and the Belgrade show stands as her last concert.

What is known about the day

The show was staged in the Lower Town, or Donji grad, of Belgrade Fortress, the Kalemegdan.^[14] The Serbian weekly Vreme would later describe the spot, between the fortress walls and the Danube, as the place known for her concert there.^[15] It was billed as a night of the Tuborg Festival, and tickets cost 40 euros, around £35 for British fans.^[16] June 18 was a Saturday, and the crowd was put at about 20,000.^[8][5] Moby was scheduled to play after her the same night.^[16][17]

The promoters had been working on the show for about a year. According to the organizers' account gathered by VICE Serbia five years later, Winehouse flew in on a private plane with her tour manager, and her arrival time kept shifting, from around 1 p.m. to around 5 p.m.^[17] Reports said she came onstage about an hour late.^[5]

Her band went on first and played to warm up the crowd. When Winehouse walked out, she was waving and smiling.^[17] She opened with "Just Friends," followed by "Addicted" and "Tears Dry On Their Own."^[10][18] On the fourth song, Little Anthony and the Imperials' "I'm On the Outside (Looking In)," backing singer Zalon Thompson took the lead.^[18] A report from Belgrade published by Cafébabel says Thompson and the other backing vocalist, Ade Omotayo, each sang two covers that night, and that the band stayed professional.^[16]

The show ran into trouble early. According to AFP, she could not get through some of the lyrics and left the stage twice;^[8] both times she came back within a few minutes.^[16] There was whistling and booing from the crowd, and at one point members of the band tried to calm the audience.^[8]

In the middle of the set, Thompson sang "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," a song associated with Hal Kemp,^[18] and then came "Back to Black," "Love Is a Losing Game" and "You Know I'm No Good."^[10][18] Near the end, Winehouse and Thompson shared the vocal on "Valerie," the Zutons song.^[18]

The last song was "You're Wondering Now," a cover of the Andy and Joey song; Far Out says Thompson sang lead on it as well.^[10][18] Eleven songs were played.^[10] Far Out puts the length of the set at about 45 minutes, while the Cafébabel report says her contract called for 70.^[18][16]

The Serbian press was harsh the next day.^[5] Five years on, Sagor Mešković, one of the show's key organizers, told VICE that he still had mixed feelings about the night, and that it had been different from other troubled performances he had seen.^[17]

What the show left behind

Winehouse's last recording predates Belgrade by three months. On March 23, 2011, at Abbey Road Studios in London, she sang "Body and Soul" with Tony Bennett, in a session filmed by cinematographer Dion Beebe for a documentary about Bennett.^[19] The track and video were released worldwide on September 14, 2011, what would have been her 28th birthday, with proceeds going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. The song was one of 17 on Bennett's Duets II, released in the U.S. on September 20 to mark his 85th birthday. Bennett called her "a rare talent."^[19] In 2012 "Body and Soul" won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and in 2013 "Cherry Wine," with Nas, was nominated as well.^[2]

The Amy Winehouse Foundation has worked with children and young people since 2011.^[20] In her memory, it sets out to help them build self-esteem and resilience.^[19] Its work includes a resilience programme in schools, music therapy for children and music projects outside the UK,^[20] and in 2016 it opened Amy's Place in East London, a home for women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.^[2][20]

At the 88th Academy Awards on February 28, 2016, Asif Kapadia's documentary Amy won Best Documentary Feature. Onstage, Kapadia said the film was about showing the world who she really was, and producer James Gay-Rees dedicated the award to the fans who had loved her through thick and thin.^[21]

That June 18, VICE Serbia marked five years since the Belgrade show, retracing, with the promoters' recollections, how a concert a year in the making became the first and only night of the tour.^[17] In June 2021, Belgrade's deputy mayor, Goran Vesić, announced plans for a modern sculpture in the fortress's Lower Town, where she gave her last concert, with the design to be chosen by international competition; he said he hoped it would be in place by the same time the following year.^[14] We have not found a report confirming that it was completed. Also in 2021, Radio X looked back on Belgrade as her last proper live show, and on the Roundhouse cameo as her final public appearance.^[10]

In 2024 came the biopic Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson with Marisa Abela as Winehouse. It opened in Japan on November 22 under the title Back to Black: Amy no Subete.^[22]

On October 23, 2026, a 20th-anniversary edition of Back to Black was released on 3CD, 3LP and other formats, adding four unreleased demos, rare B-sides and a live set recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on February 8, 2007, during the Back to Black tour.^[23] Universal Music Japan announced the release in August.^[24]

Of the 12 nights planned for the summer of 2011, only Belgrade took place.