Mark Ronson acknowledged the upcoming 20th anniversary of meeting Amy Winehouse as he accepted the Outstanding Contribution to Music honour at the BRIT Awards on Saturday night.
The Uptown Funk producer took to the stage at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England to accept the honour and noted that next week will mark 20 years since he met the Rehab singer – a moment that would skyrocket both of their careers.
“I realised on the way here that on Thursday March 6th, it’ll be 20 years to the day that Amy Winehouse came up to my studio in New York City,” he recalled. “She came up to the steps and she said, ‘I’m here to meet Mark Ronson’ and I said, ‘That’s me,’ she goes, ‘I thought you were an old guy with a beard.’ Now I’m an old guy. We went upstairs and we talked for four hours and that night we wrote (the title song from her hit album) Back to Black and that day changed my life forever.”
Ronson added that he “can’t believe” the artists he has since gone on to work with, many of whom provided video tributes as his introduction.
“Artists like Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Queens, Raye, the list goes on,” he continued. “But I know the music I made with Amy is the reason any of them know who I am anyway, so that’s why I’ll always treasure her voice, her talent, our bond, all of it.”
After accepting his honour, Ronson then performed a medley of some of his greatest producing hits, with Ghostface Killah and Dua Lipa joining him on stage as surprise guests. He also honoured Winehouse by using her old back-up singers and band The Dap-Kings, and broadcast footage of her performing via a TV set on top of his piano.
The medley began with Ooh Wee, his collaboration with Killah, before moving on to his Winehouse hits Back to Black and Valerie, his Bruno Mars smash hit Uptown Funk, and then his Dua Lipa team-ups Dance the Night and Electricity.
Winehouse died in 2011 at the age of 27.
