Few artists have summed up their own career in a single song – a single line – as well as Amy Winehouse.

“They tried to make me go to rehab,” she sang on her world-conquering 2006 single Rehab. ‘’I said ‘No, no no.’”

Occasionally, she said yes, but to no avail: repeated stints in hospitals and clinics couldn’t stop alcohol and drugs scuttling the career of a singer whose distinctive voice, rich mix of influences and heart-on-her-sleeve sensibility seemed to promise great things.

In her short lifetime, Winehouse too often made headlines because of drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, destructive relationships and abortive performances. But it’s her small but powerful body of recorded music that will be her legacy.

The singer was found dead on Saturday at age 27 by ambulance crews called to her home in north London’s Camden area, a youth-culture mecca known for its music scene, its pubs and the availability of illegal drugs.

It was not a complete surprise, but the news was still a huge shock for millions around the world. The size of Winehouse’s appeal was reflected in the extraordinary range of people paying tribute as they heard the news, from Demi Moore – who tweeted “Truly sad news ... May her troubled soul find peace” – to chef Jamie Oliver, who wrote “such a waste, raw talent” on the social networking site.

Winehouse was something rare in an increasingly homogenised music business – an outsized personality and an unclassifiable talent.

But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame, and by Winehouse’s demons. Tabloids lapped up the erratic stage appearances, drunken fights, stints in hospital and rehab clinics. Performances became shambling, stumbling train-wrecks, watched around the world on the Internet.

She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication. Soon, accounts of her erratic behaviour, cancelled concerts and drink and drug-fueled nights began to multiply.

Photographs caught her unsteady on her feet or vacant-eyed, and she appeared unhealthily thin, with scabs on her face and marks on her arms.

Last month, Winehouse cancelled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognisable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Booed and jeered off stage, she flew home and her management said she would take time off to recover.

Sadly, her efforts were not enough.