Twelve unheard songs by Amy Winehouse are to be released as an album next month.
Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, two of the late singer’s closest collaborators, have spent the past few months compiling and mixing the album, which will be titled Lioness: Hidden Treasures.
It includes previously unreleased tracks, alternative versions of existing songs and entirely new songs recorded after seminal album Back to Black was released.
The latest song to be recorded on the album is Body & Soul, a duet between Amy and Tony Bennett, which was originally destined to be released on his Duets II album. It is thought to be the last song recorded by Amy in May this year before she died two months later on July 23rd.
Other tracks on the LP include Between The Cheats, a song written by Amy in May 2008 and the 2006 hit Valerie, which has never appeared on a Winehouse album.
A cover of The Girl from Ipanema and Leon Russell classic A Song For You also feature, as well as a song that did not make the cut on Amy’s debut album Frank, called Halftime.
US rapper Nas appears on the album on the track Like Smoke, although Amy sang her part of the song separately back in 2008.
Choosing the tracks, Remi and Ronson spent a long time listening to hours of recordings of the singer, who apparently never sang the same song twice.
Proceeds from the album will go towards the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charity set up by her father Mitch to help young people.
He said: “If the family had felt that this album wasn’t up to the standard of Frank and Back To Black we would never have agreed to release it and we believe it will stand as a fitting tribute to Amy’s musical legacy.”