Amy Winehouse funeral: Kelly Osbourne attends, cremation follows
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A private funeral for Amy Winehouse was held at Edgwarebury Cemetery in London on Tuesday, with family and friends in attendance including Kelly Osbourne, ‘Back to Black’ producer Mark Ronson and recent boyfriend, filmmaker Reg Traviss.
Winehouse, 27, was found dead in bed at her north London home on Saturday.
The Jewish service was led by a rabbi and included prayers in English and Hebrew and reminiscences from Mitch Winehouse, Amy’s father, who ended his eulogy with the words, ‘Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much.’
Photos: Amy Winehouse’s funeral
Mitch Winehouse ‘told some great stories from childhood about how headstrong she was, and clearly the family and friends recognized the stories and laughed along,’ family spokesman Chris Goodman said. ‘He stressed so many times she was happier now than she had ever been and he spoke about her boyfriend and paid tribute to a lot of people in her life.’
Mom Janis and brother Alex were also among several hundred mourners on hand, as were her band members. Some held black-and-white pictures of the singer, and Mitch urged everyone to sing along as the service ended with a rendition of Carole King’s ‘So Far Away,’ one of his daughter’s favorite songs (listen to it below).
‘She has been full of life and so upbeat recently, exercising everyday and doing yoga,’ Traviss told Britain’s Sun newspaper earlier. ‘This terrible thing that happened is like an accident.’
‘I have lost my darling who I loved very much,’ he said.
The service was followed by cremation at London’s Golders Green Crematorium before the family prepared this evening to begin sitting shiva, a Jewish traditional period of mourning.
Osbourne had posted a picture of herself and Winehouse on Twitter on Saturday, saying, ‘I miss my friend! Im going to be off twitter for a while thank you for all your support! #pray4amy’
Ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, widely credited with introducing Winehouse to heroin and crack cocaine, was not allowed out of jail for the funeral. He’s currently serving a 32-month sentence for burglary and gun possession.
Preliminary autopsy results were inconclusive as to Winehouse’s cause of death; toxicology and other reports should be back in two to four weeks, authorities said Monday.
‘Amy’s family are expecting the outcome to be a heart attack or seizure and will be really shocked if it’s not,’ a source told the Sun. Winehouse had been suffering seizures due to the amount of alcohol she was consuming, the source said.
Winehouse’s music has skyrocketed in popularity since she was found dead in her Camden Square home on Saturday, Pop & Hiss reports. ‘Back to Black,’ which was released in 2006 in Britain and 2007 in the U.S., is in the top spot on the iTunes charts in nearly 20 countries and is projected to reenter the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart.
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-- Christie D’Zurilla
Twitter.com/dzurillaville
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Top photo: Kelly Osbourne arrives at the funeral service for her friend Amy Winehouse at a north London cemetery on Tuesday. Credit: Stefan Wermuth / Reuters
