Amy Winehouse celebrates with family after winning award (although of course she arrived too late to pick up)

With no sign of the wayward singer after proceedings began at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, her father Mitch went on stage to collect the Ivor Novello for Best Song on his daughter's behalf.

Looking flustered, he apologised for her absence, saying she was "getting better".

United: A healthy Amy Winehouse celebrates with her mum and dad.

Judges of the prestigious Novello had awarded her the title for her self-penned track Love Is A Losing Game.

Mitch Winehouse  told the audience, which featured names like David Gilmour and Mark Ronson: "I don't know what I'm doing up here.

"Amy unfortunately couldn't make it but she's getting better and she sends you all her love."

A message of thanks read out by Mitch failed to mention the singer's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, who is in jail awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. But Winehouse hadn't forgotten him - wearing his name on a red heart-shaped hairslide in her beehive.

A short-while later the singer made a dramatic entrance, shocking the audience and delighting her parents.

That's mine: Amy Winehouse, who arrived late, gets her award from dad Mitch

Dad Mitch handed the gong to his daughter amid rapturous applause from a stunned audience.

The honour was the second in two years from Winehouse at the prestigious event.

Last year, Winehouse's autobiographical track Rehab, which she wrote about her refusal to seek treatment for her drinking, won the Ivor Novello for Best Contemporary song.

Mitch said: "She's asked me to thank the Ivors for being the first to recognise her talent."

Winehouse's mother was also at the ceremony.

Mitch joked when he got on-stage while trying to read his speech through his glasses. "I've had to borrow them off the ex-wife. I think she deliberately gave me the wrong strength."

Amy gets up close and personal with a stranger during the awards night

He thanked the singer's manager, saying he should be awarded the "equivalent of the Victoria Cross".

The  star sat on a table while draping her arms around her father. She said afterwards: "I'm fine. Really well."

And the singer looked well - wearing a stylish floral minidress pulled tight around her figure with a chunky belt. Her skin was tanned, but she was still a far cry from the curvy singer who first wowed music lovers.

Winehouse told her father off for saying she was "getting better".

Asked why his daughter was late, Mitch said: "She's always late. She was fashionably late," and added that he did not mention her husband's name because he "forgot".

He said: "He's doing really well and Amy is being very supportive."