# Amy Winehouse’s music inspired a journalist to leave finance for journalism

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/amy-winehouse-inspired-me-to-quit-a-soul-crushing-job/
- Published: 2026-11-07T12:00:11+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-07T12:33:03+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/nov/07/my-cultural-awakening-amy-winehouse-rehab-inspired-me-to-quit-job
- Topics: Culture

## Key points

- “Rehab” helped the writer recognise how unhappy she was.
- She studied journalism while working two jobs.
- She later left finance for a journalism career.

## Summary

In 2006, while driving to a job she hated, the writer heard Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and recognised how unhappy and isolated she had become. The song and Winehouse’s candid music helped her imagine a different future, prompting her to study journalism, reconnect with friends and address inappropriate behaviour at work.

The writer was two years out of university and working early shifts in a cold, windowless Docklands office monitoring stock exchanges, while a male colleague sent unwanted comments about her clothes. She used her wages to take journalism classes and began night shifts at newspapers alongside her day job, eventually leaving finance to become a journalist. Nearly 20 years into that career, she has written a book about how female singer-songwriters, including Winehouse, have helped people through heartbreak.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.