Back to Black

"Back to Black"
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"Back to Black" is a song written by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson that was first released on 2006-10-27 as the title track of Winehouse's second album^↗, and then as as the third single from that album.

Angelina first covered the song in a music video posted on 2016-04-23, when she was 10 years old, using an orchestral arrangement based on Ronson's original music (performed by a subset of KORK) but with completely new lyrics reportedly written by Angelina in one day. The audio from this studio recording was also released as a digital single and on Angelina's first physical release (on CD) called The EP.

Because Angelina's lyrics are so different from those of the original (see a comparison below), it can be argued that this "cover" actually qualifies as the first original song by Angelina to be recorded and released. (Here the term "song" is being used in its more restricted sense of song lyrics. The musical composition those lyrics are sung over is still properly credited to Winehouse and Ronson.) Unfortunately, Angelina does not seem to have garned any official songwriting credit for the track.

Original recording

• Amy Winehouse - Back To Black^↗ (4:01), uploaded on 2009-12-23 and linked to Amy Winehouse (her official channel) [music video, clean version]
• Back to Black^↗ (4:01), uploaded on 2018-07-26, provided by Universal Music Group and linked to Amy Winehouse [audio only, explicit version]
• Back to Black^↗ (4:02), uploaded on 2018-12-12, provided by Universal Music Group and linked to Amy Winehouse [audio only, clean version]

Other performances by original artist

…

Performances by other artists

…

Angelina's version

Studio recording

The same audio was used for the music video and the single (and presumably for the EP track, as well). It was recorded on 2016-04-22 in Store Studio with members of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, known as KORK.

Music video

The music video for Angelina's version of "Back to Black" was posted on 2016-04-23 to both NRK's YouTube channel and Angelina's official channel. (More specifically, it was posted at 2016-04-23T11:22:55-07:00 to NRK's channel and at 2016-04-23T11:35:34-07:00 to hers.) It was also posted to NRK's website on the same day.

The video description on the upload to Angelina's official channel states:

So here it is, We recorded this yesterday with amazing orchestra KORK. My version of "Back to Black by Amy Winehouse" I had 1 day to change the lyrics, hope you like my version!

This would seem to imply that she wrote the lyrics on 2016-04-21 (a Thursday), before recording the song on the following day, and then releasing it on the day after that.

The video description also contains the following promotional links:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Kg79rc
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3ruIUNI
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3qyCqOz

The end credits of the music video (on both uploads) are as follows:

Angelina Jordan
Back to Black
(A. Winehouse)

Musicians from
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra

Sound:
Øystein Nordengen
Maren Marie Braastad

Photography:
Ola S. Hana
Inger Kristine Lee
Arnfinn Nygaard

Editing:
Gunhild Hjermundrud

Rehearsal for music video

• Angelina Jordan rehearsal for (Back to Black) behind the scene^↗ (4:18) – Angelina Jordan Fanclub Mosarz

2016 news story and behind-the-scenes footage

A news story^↗ about Angelina that includes footage from the "Back to Black" recording session aired on NRK's Lørdagsrevyen [The Saturday Revue] on 2016-04-23. In the video, Angelina visits an amusement park with two schoolmates and then is shuttled across town to record the "Back to Black" music video. (Note that the recording studio is approximately 30 km from the amusement park, meaning the drive could typically take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the route taken and the traffic conditions.)

It is sometimes claimed that Angelina is seen in this video working on her rewritten lyrics as she is driven to the studio. While she can be seen shuffling papers that presumably contain her handwritten lyrics (as seen in the music video), she doesn't write anything and isn't even holding anything to write with.

The news story also contains brief remarks by Rolf Lennart Stensø, credited as the orchestra leader [orkesterjef].

About 3½ years later, on 2019-12-18, a video^↗ was posted to her Angelina Jordan Fanclub Mosarz channel, showing Angelina (and others, including Sara) in the recording studio control room listening to playback of two complete takes of the song (although neither take is heard in full, probably to avoid copyright issues, since the song was released as a single).

To be specific, the first take lasts from 0:38 to 3:45 in the video, with edits at 1:20 and 1:45, leaving about 80% of the take audible. The second take is heard from 4:34 to 8:01, with edits at 4:36, 5:22, and 6:03, leaving about 90% of the take audible. (The length of the finalized track is about 3:49.)

This scene appears in the Lørdagsrevyen news story, starting at 4:09 in the YouTube video^↗ (where Angelina, Sara, and Mery are seen with two other people in the control room). The cameraman capturing that footage can be seen very briefly twice in the "Mosarz" footage^↗, at about 0:17 and 0:38 (but then he is not visible later when the camera pans around as they are listening to the second take, revealing that Michael and Stensø are also in the room).

All of this footage strongly suggests that Angelina really did record her vocal "live" as the orchestra played, as the music video purports to show. This is based on several observations:

1. The two takes heard in the "Mosarz" video are at slightly different tempos (and have other minor differences in the sound of the musical accompaniment), which would not have happened if Angelina recorded her vocals over a prerecorded instrumental track.
2. Mistakes and "shortcomings" in Angelina's vocals are heard in both takes, suggesting that the tracks were freshly recorded with no post-production yet done on them.
3. The outfit Angelina is wearing in the studio control room is the same one she is wearing in the music video, and the pants/leggings appear to be the same ones she wore in the rehearsal with the orchestra and at the amusement park (it looks like she changed into a clean top for the music video, and was wearing more "layers" for warmth earlier in the day).
4. The claim in the video description that the music video was recorded "yesterday" suggests that they used quickest, most efficient method of producing the video and audio track — namely recording everything at the same time. (The tracks on her 2018 album, It's Magic, also appear to have been recorded in the same way.)

Single and EP track

The digital single used the same audio as the music video.

• Back to Black^↗ (4:02), uploaded on 2017-12-21 and linked to Angelina Jordan Official (audio-only, provided to YouTube by CD Baby) [no longer viewable]
• Back to Black^↗
• Back to Black by Angelina Jordan^↗
• Back to Black by Angelina Jordan^↗

Live performances

2016 Rainforest Alliance benefit

• Angelina Jordan opening show for Rainforest Alliance in New York 2016^↗ (emcee talks about "Back to Black", but video ends after first line of "What a Difference a Day Makes")

2017 Muse in City festival

• Muse in City (2017-04-23 - live)

ANGELINA JORDAN (11) "Back to black" Muse in City festival,Seoul 2017(Better audio & video)😃(Part 4) ^↗

Angelina Jordan sings Back to Black cover at Muse in City festival, Seoul, South Korea, 23 04 2017^↗

Angelina Jordan 안젤리나 조던[4K]2017 Muse in City festival^↗ (4th song, following "Bang Bang", "Summertime", and "I Put a Spell on You")

2017 Sandefjord concert

• Probably 2017-07-12 concert in Sandefjord.

Angelina Jordan Back To Black concert 2017^↗

• On stage rehearsal/soundcheck:

Angelina Jordan rehearsal Back To Black^↗

2017 Larkollen concert

• Summer concert tour 2017, Larkollen (2017-07-19 - live)

Angelina Jordan - Back To Black cover by Angelina - Larkollen - 19.07.2017^↗

2017 Prøysen festival

• Summer concert tour 2017, Prøysenfestivalen (2017-07-21 - live)

Angelina Jordan - Back To Black cover - Proysenfestivalen - 21.07.2017^↗

2018 Gala de Danza

• private video on YouTube titled "Concert in Los Cabos Mexico, with Tate McRae as amazing dancer" (available through her Patreon)

Later performances using Amy's lyrics

Angelina has sung Amy's original lyrics to this song.

• Home recording, with piano (2021 - recording)

Back to black❤️ #amywhinehouse #backtoblack #latenight #fypシ #foryoupage^↗

• RR studio, with piano (2024 - recording)

BRAND NEW: Angelina Jordan singing "Back to Black" (requested) #angelinajordan #reaction #new #viral^↗. H S on YouTube. Accessed 2025-02-11.

• Aurélien Froissart Public Piano at St. Pancras station, London (2024-05 - live)

Angelina Jordan SHOCKS a whole train station in London 😳^↗. Aurélien Froissart - piano on YouTube. Accessed 2025-02-11.

• US concert Alex Theater, Glendale, 2024 (2024-09 - rehearsal)

Should I post more on my spam account? 😻💕 ##backtoblack##amywinhouse##music##viral##live^↗

Lyrics comparison

Although Angelina kept the overall sturcture of the original lyrics, she made significant changes to almost every single line of the song. (Only one line in the two versions share more than two words in common.) It is not known why she didn't just change the most problematic lines of the song and leave the rest mostly unchanged, as she did later with two other Winehouse songs, "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good". However, the extremely graphic nature of the second line of the song might have influenced that decision. (That line is censored in the "clean" version of the song that most people are familiar with.)

There is no official version of Angelina's lyrics, so each listener will have their own ideas about what she sings in certain parts of the song. Unfortunately, the most easily found version of her lyrics (turned up with a simple web search) is very obviously wrong in many places, from the very first line onwards. (And therefore no link to those lyrics will be given here. But for the record, they can be found, with minor variations, at several lyrics archives, including Genius, AZLyrics, Musixmatch, and LyricFind. It is not known which website the lyrics were first posted to.)

The following version of Angelina's lyrics is based on that error-ridden version, but with the necessary changes made by the owner of this wiki to match what he thinks Angelina sings in the original music video. This was cross-referenced with the other take that wasn't used (the first one they listen to in the behind-the-scenes video^↗ discussed above) and a few of her live performances from 2017. When these sources seemed to differ, precedence was given to what was heard in the music video. Alternate interpretations of certain words and phrases and other things that are still uncertain are presented in square brackets.

Amy's lyrics come from the video description of the official music video posted to her official YouTube channel^↗. Again, these have been changed to match what she seems to actually sing. In particular, they were checked against the explicit version of the song^↗ provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group, and the only change that was necessary was to the first word of the last line of the second verse, where the official lyrics use the word "I'll", but she seems to actually sing "I".

Amy Winehouse's lyrics                Angelina's lyrics

He left no time to regret             I have gone mad by your love
Kept his dick wet                     Crazy, sick, and mad
With his same old safe bet            I laugh, I cry, I love
Me and my head high                   When I see you with others I cry
And my tears dry                      With strangers you are high
Get on without my guy                 Alone and with no one I cry

(discuss differences…)

You went back to what you knew        I'm thinking of you and I cry
So far removed                        In loneliness behind this lie [or: light]
From all that we went through         From this fun[?] part of life
And I tread a troubled track          Every night you become a star
My odds are stacked                   And I laugh at stars
I go back to black                    Shame they get it so far [??]

(discuss differences…)

We only said goodbye with words       I'm the one who speaks to the moon
I died a hundred times                I didn't want to be in love
You go back to her                    I fall back to
And I go back to                      I fall back in
I go back to us                       I fall back in love

(discuss differences…)

I love you much                       I love you so
It's not enough                       I laugh at you
You love blow and I love puff         I have no one but the wind
And life is like a pipe               I have gone away so many times
And I'm a tiny penny                  Just to forget 'bout you
Rolling up the walls inside           But I fall in love with you again

(discuss differences…)

We only said goodbye with words       I'm the one who speaks to the moon
I died a hundred times                I didn't want to be in love
You go back to her                    I fall back to
And I go back to                      I fall back in

We only said goodbye with words       I'm the one who speaks to the moon
I died a hundred times                I didn't want to be in love
You go back to her                    I fall back to
And I go back to                      I fall back in
                                      I fall back and [or: I fall back in]

(discuss…)

Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh
Black                                 Laugh

(discuss differences…)

I go back to                          I'm still laughing [or: I still laugh at]
I go back to                          I'm still laughing [or: I still laugh at]

(discuss differences…)

We only said goodbye with words       I'm the one who speaks to the moon
I died a hundred times                I didn't want to be in love
You go back to her                    I fall back in
And I go back to                      I fall back in

We only said goodbye with words       I'm the one who speaks to the moon
I died a hundred times                I didn't want to be in love
You go back to her                    I fall back to
And I go back to black                I fall back in love

(discuss…)