The goddaughter of British singer Amy Winehouse says now feels like the right time to talk about her.
It has been 10 years since the star, who fought a public battle with drink and drugs, was found dead at her home.
14th September 1983 - July 23rd 2011 🖤
10 years today. Not a day goes by. Please join us in sharing your favourite memories of Amy 🖤 pic.twitter.com/6Pbrw3wUOz— Amy Winehouse (@amywinehouse) July 23, 2021
Her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, is opening up for the first time in a new documentary, 'Amy Winehouse & Me: Dionne's Story'.
She told Newstalk Breakfast why she chose to make this documentary now.
"I've had loads of offers before to do stuff like this in the past and it just never felt right, because I didn't feel comfortable doing it - nor was I actually in a position mentally to go there.
"It was only really November last year I really started thinking about Amy a lot more.
"I did a job of not thinking about her for about nine years, and I think 10 is such a big number that I couldn't not think about her.
"And I always felt like there was a side to her that just was never shown, so I felt like doing something like this."
She also says she wanted to raise awareness that "people are more than their addictions".
"And just to show the Amy that [sic] really that's the only Amy that people should really know about.
"Everything else that they kind of read and saw in the papers, that was nothing, that was 10% of Amy".
'He just started crying'
Dionne was on stage with Amy in London just three nights before she died.
She recalls: "It was very good, it was a lovely night - if someone told me I could never see them again and this is the last time I could see them, I hope that it's like that.
"She was really beaming, she looked super good, she was happy, full of energy and talking so positively".
Dionne was then in Wales at a music festival when she heard the news of Amy's death.
"I remember all of a sudden, everyone's phones just started going crazy... but I didn't think anything.
File photo of Amy Winehouse performing at the V Festival in England in 2008. Picture by: Brian O'Sullivan/PA Wire/PA Images"But it was about half an hour before I had to go on stage, and I just remember being in the dressing room and everyone just started leaving.
"There was a shift: the best way to describe it was like it was really sunny outside, and then a grey cloud went over.
"I was in the dressing room with Amy's PA, who was working with me that day, and he just started crying.
"I don't why, but something inside of me just made me ask him 'Is it Amy?' and he just said 'Yeah she's gone'.
"It kind of just went in one ear and out the other, I just didn't acknowledge it or register what he'd just said and I kind of just went into autopilot".
'A positive influence on her'
Asked about how Amy became her godmother, she says her mother and Amy were good friends.
"I was roughly around six, turning seven, and my mom was friends with her - and the first time I met her was actually because my mom couldn't get a babysitter for me.
"I just remember I was at Amy's house... I remember Amy being like 'Would you like some juice? Would you like some food? I've got some biscuits in the cupboard if you'd like it'.
"And slowly a relationship started to grow, and I think my mom could see that Amy was really on her best behaviour when I was around.
"So I kind of became a positive influence on her.
"Amy just kind of turned around to my mom and said 'I would love to be her godmother, would you allow that?'... From then it was 'Auntie Amy'".
Dionne says she talked to Amy about everything in her life.
"I was very lucky because I always say having Amy was kind of like having a second mom, but also like having a sister.
"I could talk to her about things that I just wouldn't dare say to my mom - like whether it was about 'There's a boy in my school I like' so something - she would give me advice on that.
"Doing girlie things; I was like her human dolly - she loved to do my hair and my make-up and pluck my eyebrows until there was no hair left.
"She was just really into things that young girls do".
Dionne also says Amy took her under her wing when she expressed an interest in music.
"We were just bonding on all different levels, I think that's what made it really unique and strong".
   
