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Amy Winehouse Foundation owner “not ashamed”

By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 23 August 2011

The man who registered the name of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, blocking the singer’s family from doing so, has said he is “not ashamed or embarrassed” after it emerged that donations to the proposed charity had been returned to fans.

As previously reported, Mitch Winehouse was forced to return cheque donations intended for the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which he announced he would set up in the wake of his daughter’s death last month. Winehouse wrote on Twitter last week: “We all have to … put pressure on this dickhead who stole our foundation name. Instead of concentrating on allocating funding I am having to send cheques back cos we haven’t got [a] bank [account] in that name. Our solicitors are all over this, but it takes time. Meanwhile we can’t get on with [the] foundation”.

Martin McCann bought the domain name amywinehousefoundation.com hours after the announcement of plans to set up the charity were made. Then earlier this month, on 2 Aug, the day after Mitch Winehouse met with politicians to discuss better drug rehabilitation, McCann also registered the name Amy Winehouse Foundation Ltd with Companies House.

Speaking to The Sun, McCann said: “I’m not exploiting anything yet. I’ve just bought some domain names. Anybody could have. It only takes the click of a mouse. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed. Detach yourself from emotions and think business. [Mitch Winehouse] is making every effort to hijack this charity to satiate his own needs for the charity. She’s not the only Amy Winehouse in the world”.

He added that he would be willing to “come to an arrangement” with the singer’s father, although only if he apologises for calling him a dickhead on Twitter. “I’m not the dickhead. The dickhead is sitting over there without the name in his possession”, he mused.