Amy Winehouse was “the person that made it all happen” on each of her songs.

The late singer’s posthumous ‘Lioness: Hidden treasures’ album is released today (05.12.11), and although many of the songs on it weren’t finished when she died from accidental alcohol poisoning in July, producer Salaam Remi told how she always wrote her own material and had a clear picture of how she wanted her songs to sound.

He told Vibe.com: “People think you got some beats with all the cool people and you know you’re just the girl that sings and is making a train wreck out of yourself.

“But she was actually a creator of situations and the person that made it all happen.

“She played the guitar. All of these songs were written by Amy on a guitar and then produced. Amy wrote the chords to the majority of her songs. ‘Love Is A Losing Game’, ‘Unholy War’, all of those are 100 per cent Amy.”

Salaam -one of the producers who worked on The Fugees ‘The Score’ album – also told how he cancelled his plans to retire when he heard Amy sing for the first time.

He explained: “I was like, ‘I just moved to Miami, it’s my 30th birthday, leave me alone. I’m sitting retired, this better be good.’ I wasn’t really looking to do anything. I was ready to stop.

“So she walks in and I didn’t even know what she looked like. She pulls out a guitar and starts singing ‘Girl From Ipanema’ and it lit up the whole room and I was like, ‘Oh, you can sing.’”