Dionne Bromfield is still too grief-stricken to listen to her godmother Amy Winehouse’s music.
The 23-year-old singer shot to fame as a teenager when the ‘Rehab’ hitmaker signed her to her own Lioness Records label, but she dropped out of the spotlight following the death of her mentor in 2011 in order to process her feelings.
She said of Amy’s death: "I didn’t know how to react or how to handle my emotions.
"It hit me two or three years after. It’s why I took such a break.
"Even now I can’t listen to her music because it is a sadness I feel.
"I don’t want to have to make myself remember certain things as then I am reminded of the good times I miss."
Dionne regarded Amy as a "second mother" and her "biggest inspiration".
She told HELLO! magazine: "I think with me she felt she could be herself – I was just a young kid and I would call her Aunty Amy.
"She asked my mum if she could be my godmother and she was like a second mother to me.
"There was stuff that I would tell her that I didn’t mention to my mum.
"Amy was the biggest inspiration you could ever hope for.
"To have someone that musical and talented mentoring me was incredible."
And the singer wouldn’t have even started writing her own music if it wasn’t for Amy’s encouragement.
She said: "I said, ‘I don’t know what to write about. All I do is get the bus and go to school’, and she said, ‘That is something, start with that.’
"If she hadn’t encouraged me to write, I probably wouldn’t have done.
"Although I’m talkative, I’m a bit of a closed book when it comes to my emotions."
Dionne Bromfield still can’t listen to Amy Winehouse’s music
