Amy Winehouse, the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, was found dead Saturday in her London home, police said. She was 27.
"Everyone who was involved with Amy is shocked and devastated. Our thoughts are with her family and friends," said Chris Goodman, a spokesman for her publicity representatives. He said her family will issue a statement when they are ready.
The British singer's record label, Universal, confirmed her death.
"We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer," the statement read. "Our prayers go out to Amy's family, friends and fans at this difficult time."
Her father, Mitch Winehouse, himself a musician, had just flown to New York to perform two shows at the Blue Note jazz club, but learned the news upon arrival and immediately flew back to the U.K.
Singer and actress Kelly Osbourne, who helped Winehouse check into a drug addiction treatment facility in 2008, was one of many who grieved for the singer on Twitter.
"I cant even breath right now im crying so hard i just lost 1 of my best friends. i love you forever Amy and will never forget the real you!" she tweeted.
Winehouse shot to fame with the album "Back to Black," whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse — with her black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos — one of music's most recognizable stars.
Police confirmed that a 27-year-old female was pronounced dead at the home in Camden Square northern London; the cause of death was not immediately known. London Ambulance Services said Winehouse had died before the two ambulance crews it sent arrived at the scene. TMZ.com later reported that there may have been some signs of life when the crew arrived, but that Winehouse died before she could be taken to the hospital.
An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday, TMZ.com reports.
Photographs show that her body was taken out of the home under a red blanket.
"I didn't go out looking to be famous," Winehouse told the Associated Press when "Back to Black" was released. "I'm just a musician."
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.
Born in 1983 to taxi driver Mitch Winehouse and his pharmacist wife Janis, Winehouse grew up in the north London suburbs, and was set on a showbiz career from an early age. When she was 10, she and a friend formed a rap group, Sweet 'n' Sour — Winehouse was Sour — that she later described as "the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa."
She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, a factory for British music and acting moppets, later went to the Brit School, a performing arts academy in the "Fame" mold, and was originally signed to "Pop Idol" svengali Simon Fuller's 19 Management.
But Winehouse was never a packaged teen star, and always resisted being pigeonholed.
Her jazz-influenced 2003 debut album, "Frank," was critically praised and sold well in Britain. It earned Winehouse an Ivor Novello songwriting award, two Brit nominations and a spot on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize.
But Winehouse soon expressed dissatisfaction with the disc, saying she was "only 80 percent behind" the album.
"Frank" was followed by a slump during which Winehouse broke up with her boyfriend, suffered a long period of writer's block and, she later said, smoked a lot of marijuana.
Winehouse just latest musician to die at 27
"I had writer's block for so long," she said in 2007. "And as a writer, your self-worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote. .. I used to think, 'What happened to me?'
"At one point it had been two years since the last record and (the record company) actually said to me, 'Do you even want to make another record?' I was like, 'I swear it's coming.' I said to them, 'Once I start writing I will write and write and write. But I just have to start it.'"
'Back to Black' led to fame
The album she eventually produced was a sensation.
Released in Britain in the fall of 2006, "Back to Black" brought Winehouse global fame. Working with producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi and soul-funk group the Dap-Kings, Winehouse fused soul, jazz, doo-wop and, above all, a love of the girl-groups of the early 1960s with lyrical tales of romantic obsession and emotional excess.
"Back to Black" was released in the United States in March 2007 and went on to win five Grammy awards, including song and record of the year for "Rehab."
Winehouse performing in  in 2007 
British singer  died today in her London home in Camden Square, aged 27. The cause of death is not yet known and is being treated as "unexplained", according to the metropolitan police.

"On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene", said a police statement on their website. An ambulance was called to her address where paramedics reported her dead on the scene at around 16:00 local time (15:00 UTC) in London.

Winehouse previously had problems with drugs and alcohol and checked herself out of rehab in June.