'Back to Black' music supervisor Iain Cooke talks about capturing the essence of Amy Winehouse's music: 'She's a Classic Forevermore'

Amy Winehouse played Marissa Abela in the much talked about biopic, back to black which hit theaters in May. The film is now heading to streaming services and is available to watch on Peacock from Friday (July 5).

The biopic follows the life of the beloved Grammy winner, who is best known for her breakthrough sophomore album Back to black, which included the Hot 100 hits “Rehab” and “You Know I'm No Good”. Winehouse, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, died in 2011 aged 27 of alcohol poisoning.

Film The Studio Canal directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (A million little pieces) and written by Matt Greenhalgh (Nowhere boy) was created with the support of the Winehouse estate, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Publishing and features a number of the singer's best-loved hits.

Iain Cooke, the film's music supervisor, worked closely with Abela as well as Winehouse's former band and estate to capture the late superstar's unique musical essence on film. See below for Advertising signchats with Cooke about all things Back to blackand catch the movie on Peacock now.

Take me back to when you were called to be the music supervisor on the biopic. How was;

It was really exciting. I also immediately saw it as a challenge, and a journey that would be a journey to bring to life. I was actually 10 months before we shot — a long time ago and there was just the director, the producers and the writer. They hadn't worked together because it hadn't been officially given the go-ahead. The first thing I was tasked with was actually negotiating the rights to Amy's songs in order to get the green light and that was quite an intense few months of negotiations. Once we got the approval, we started preparing.

We got Marisa with a band, a vocal coach and a guitar teacher to work on the material and then we brought in our music producer, Giles Martin, who did a great job. It was truly an amazing process from pre-production to shooting, from post-production and editing to final mixing. It was about two years of work.

What was it like working with Marisa to capture Amy's unique essence?

She was honestly amazing. I have nothing but praise and admiration for her for working so hard. She was a joy to work with and she was really positive and just immersed herself in it. She had amazing pitch and timing and just really studied Amy as an artist and also studied some of her influences. She was wonderful.

How do you maintain the authenticity of such a sensitive and multi-told story?

All the directors and collaborators involved felt truly passionate about the story and wanted to be the custodians of that authenticity. It was really important to maintain the integrity of her legacy and we all wanted to do right by her. One of the things we did was we approached her old live band early on — and we'd totally understand if they didn't want to be in — but we approached them to see if they'd like to come and pre-record the live backing tracks and they did. It was just incredibly special and incredibly moving. It was her actual band playing those gigs pre-recording the music, and you can't get more authentic than that.

Is there a scene in the movie that you're excited for people to see?

There's a moment very early in the movie where Marissa sings “What Is It About Men” — it's just in her bedroom and it's just a snapshot with nothing to hide behind. We knew that if we got the timing right, that the audience would really be in the film with us and on the journey. Marissa did amazing.

I also absolutely love Glastonbury. You know, credit to the sound team. They did an amazing job on the mix. If you watch it, you get that spirit. You know, it's wild and free. Chaotic, but its energy alone is magical. Amy was one of the most important recording artists of all time and will go down in history alongside the greats who influenced her. He had lyrical intelligence and one of the greatest and most distinctive recording voices. I hope we'll go back and listen to it again, and rediscover it and keep listening to it because it's a classic forever.

Finally, what is your favorite Amy Winehouse song?

“Love is a Losing game.” It's a timeless, beautiful song.