Ronson and Remi gather 11 acts for Amy Winehouse tribute

Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi brought 11 acts to London’s Roundhouse on Wednesday for a 20th-anniversary “Back to Black” tribute, Variety said in an Oct. 22 concert review.

The show returned Amy Winehouse’s 2006 album to Camden 20 years after release, matching one performer to each of its 11 tracks before a finale of “Valerie.”

Ronson, who co-produced “Back to Black” with Remi, put the setting at the centre of the evening. “I only know Camden through the eyes of Amy, so here we are — we’re in Amy’s house right now,” he told the audience, Variety said.

The concert was being recorded for a BBC broadcast hosted by Jo Whiley, the review said. Ronson and Remi assembled an all-female lineup, backed by the Amy Winehouse Band, with 11 performers assigned to the album’s 11 songs.

The bill included Corinne Bailey Rae on “Back to Black,” Sasha Keable on “Just Friends,” Nia Smith on “Tears Dry on Their Own,” Skye Newman on “Addicted,” Yebba on “Love Is a Losing Game,” Terri Walker on “Me & Mr. Jones,” Leanne La Havas on “You Know I’m No Good,” Baby Rose on “Wake Up Alone,” Jorja Smith on “Some Unholy War,” FLO on “He Can Only Hold Her” and Jessie Reyez on “Rehab.”

The structure turned the anniversary into an argument for the album’s durability. Rather than rely on one marquee interpreter, the concert used 11 contemporary performers to move through an 11-song record released two decades earlier.

Variety said the audience spanned listeners old enough to have seen Winehouse perform the album when it was new and younger fans who were toddlers, or not yet born, at the time. The venue added another layer of context: the Roundhouse, in Winehouse’s Camden, was the last place she performed before her death at 27.

Newman, identified by Variety as a TikTok breakthrough artist, connected that generational handoff directly to Winehouse. “She’s someone who has made me feel seen and heard, especially in this space, where a lot of people come from an upper hand. And I don’t,” Newman said during an onstage interview with Whiley.

Ronson also used the show to stress Winehouse’s craft rather than only her image. Before Yebba performed “Love Is a Losing Game,” he recalled the difficulty of the song’s harmonic structure: “Amy’s musicality, she was like a monster, and I definitely want everybody to know that.”

The review singled out several performances, including Yebba’s stripped arrangement, FLO’s 1960s-style treatment of “He Can Only Hold Her” and Reyez’s closing turn on “Rehab.” After the album sequence, Ronson brought the singers back for “Valerie,” a song outside “Back to Black” but closely associated with Winehouse.

Variety did not report ticket sales, a total attendance figure or a BBC air date for the recorded broadcast.

Source: concert review, Variety, Oct. 22.