Amy Winehouse lyrics in Cambridge exam paper

While we´re used to Amy Winehouse regularly adorning the pages of several British tabloids, most of us would be surprised if the singer was ever discussed in a more academic sense - for example, in an English Literature exam.

“Surprise” was certainly one reaction to an exam question put to students at Cambridge University, who were recently asked to compare Winehouse´s lyrics to prose by Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday and 16th century poet and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh.

The song in question was Love Is A Losing Game - co-written by Mark Ronson - and students were asked to compare the tune´s lyrics to words from As You Came From The Holy Land by Raleigh, Boots Of Spanish Leather by Dylan and Fine And Mellow by Holiday.

Cambridgeis one of the UK´s most prestigious universities and it´s not known what today´s bright young literary thinkers made of Winehouse´s lyrics, but it´s unlikely she'd be particularly perturbed if the track was slated; the same song recently won her an Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically.

By Chris Wickett