Marisa Abela sings every song in the biopic, here’s an excerpt (the last couple of paragraphs) from yesterday’s interview with the director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, where she talks about the Back To Black Trailer …
The trailer ends with Marisa Abela singing the title refrain of the film, ‘Back To Black’. It wasn’t always expected to work out that way. “When we first talked about it, my first question to [Marisa] was, ‘Can you sing?’ And she said, ‘I can’t’,” Taylor-Johnson recalls. “I was thinking, maybe we’ll use Amy’s voice throughout, and we’ll do it that way. She then went off after that audition – irrespective of whether she knew she’d got the part – and started training her voice.” By the time Abela undertook a test recording at Abbey Road (“You can imagine how nerve-racking that is”), it was clear that she could pull it off. “Now she sings the entire movie, beginning to end,” marvels the filmmaker. “I mean, it’s a huge feat.”
There was no higher bar to cross than winning over the real Winehouse’s collaborators. “Amy’s original band got back together, and we all went into the recording studio,” she says. “Dale [Davis] was there, her bass guitarist, and Ade [Omotayo, singer], and we just all stood there and just went, ‘Fuck!’ She’s incredible. They didn’t know what to expect. They were just brimming with emotion, because it’s such a multi-layer of feelings for the people who were close to her and worked with her.” Throughout the shoot, the band kept coming back for more. “A lot of the times they would just actually show up on filming days when we were filming music scenes, to just sit and experience that.”
Not her voice, from what I know. There were singing lessons involved for the actress playing Amy, so I’m assuming the whole movie is relying on essentially covers of her songs.
I agree! Biopics are all the rage right now, but they’re not really a homage to the artist rather than a way for studios to push out another Hollywood-ized version of their career. An experimental film would be very nice to see about Amy, but unfortunately I think she’s too big of an artist where big movie studios still want a piece of her after her death.
Kapadia’s film was great, even if some things were edited incorrectly (allegedly). The Back to Black movie seems terrible, Marisela Abela doesn’t look like Amy and can’t sing like her.
I wrote to production at the time that I thought Carol Schuler would be a good choice. Below are two links where you can take a look for yourself, I would be interested in your opinion:
The Blake depicted is too fat and old. When Amy got a tattoo, she wore her hair long and not in a beehive. We’re going to see a movie that’s to Mitch’s liking, and the flashbacks look like they’re recreated from pictures (which isn’t anything new since Amy’s family was barely present at the time).
new update. I am getting more hopeful of this movie. of course I’d rather have Amy’s vocals, but it seems better. the new trailer uploaded by @amywinehouse.uk on instagram had my hopes going through the roof.
lmao. no, ur a GIANT NON… Hater. YESSSSSSSS! Horrible outfits. they shouldve waited for a biopic THEN auction off the outfits. Oh, THeyre auctioning Amy’s Letters to Tony Bennett Off.
Now I know the movie: Amy performs at the Grammys, thunderous applause, Mitch enthusiastically jumps out of the chair and throws his arms up - Amy performs at the Grammys, thunderous applause, Mitch enthusiastically jumps out of the chair and throws his arms up - Amy performs at the Grammys, thunderous applause, Mitch enthusiastically jumping out of his chair and throwing his arms up, etc. lol
