Happy Birthday to Dionne Warwick, who celebrates her 80th birthday on Saturday (December 12th). Dionne Warwick will always be best known for her classic 1960's hits written by Burt Bacharach and the late-Hal David, including “Don't Make Me Over,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Walk On By”, “Alfie,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls,” “Do You Know The Way To San Jose,” “I'll Never Fall In Love Again,” and many others. Last year, Warwick was among the recipients of a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award.
Dionne Warwick recently had a comedic Twitter exchange with Chance The Rapper, in which the music legend posted, “If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this. I am now Dionne the Singer.” Chance, an obvious fan, soon responded: “I will be whatever you wanna call me Ms. Warwick.”
Warwick told The New York Post the pair spoke and have agreed to team up on a charity track to benefit her Hunger: Not Impossible initiative. Warwick said, “I didn’t think he would know who Dionne Warwick actually is. And to my surprise, he felt the same way: He was surprised that I knew who he was. And, of course, I knew who he was!”
Dionne Warwick's maternal aunt is legendary gospel singer Cissy Houston — the mother of the late Whitney Houston. In 2018, Warwick denied claims that her sister Dee Dee Warwick sexually assaulted Whitney Houston. According to Madamenoire, Whitney’s brother, Gary, revealed in the documentary about the late singer that she was allegedly molested by Dee Dee from the age seven to nine. Dionne has since spoken with Larry King Now, and has called the claims made by Whitney’s former assistant, Mary Jones, “evil.”
Dionne said, “I have tried to refrain from responding to that. First of all, it’s totally hogwash. My sister would never, ever have done anything to do any harm to any child, especially within our family. And for those lies to be perpetuated in this so-called documentary film, I think it’s evil.”
Whitney's mother, Cissy Houston has also denounced the accusations, saying to People magazine, “We cannot overstate the shock and horror we feel and the difficulty we have believing that my niece Dee Dee Warwick . . . molested two of my three children.”
Whitney’s former assistant has also said in a statement, “I was close to Whitney, she confided in me and I struggled tremendously deciding whether to share this secret or keep to myself. I deeply love and respect Dionne, Cissy and their entire families, and my intention was never to embarrass anyone in the family, but rather to bring to light that Whitney was subjected to something painful and troubling as a child. And it’s something that happens to other innocent kids and goes unspoken too much.”
In 2014, Dionne Warwick released her latest duets album, called Feels So Good, with such special guests as Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Cee Lo Green, and Ziggy Marley.
In 2011, she wrote her autobiography called, My Life As I See It, which was co-written by David Freedman Wooley and published by Simon & Schuster.
We asked Dionne Warwick if she could sum up why she and Bacharach and David were such a formidable creative team: “I think the magic of what Bacharach-David-Warwick was — the fact that I did do every single song that they wrote in the form of a demonstration record, and/or I was a part of the background group that did when they wrote songs for the Drifters or any other person that they were recording — we just knew that there was a chemistry that absolutely worked with the three of us.”
Warwick's hits continued through the '70s and '80s including “Heartbreaker,” which was co-written and produced by the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb, “I'll Never Love This Way Again,” and the Number One hits “Then Came You” with the Spinners and “That's What Friends Are For” with Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder.
Warwick said that she couldn't pick one decade in her 50-plus-year career that was more important than the others artistically: “I learned from each one. The fact is that I grew with each one of them, so it's hard to say that one was bigger or better than the other.”
Dionne Warwick told us why she feels it's still important to keep recording and staying active in the studio: “The audience that has now grown up with me now have children who are having children, and I want them to know who Dionne Warwick is, and that I can be a part of their CD collection now, as they're called, instead of records. Remember vinyl? I loved it. But, y'know, they can now say, 'Yeah,' y'know, 'I know who she is, and I like her stuff, too.'”
Dionne Warwick On Singing To The Next Generation :
Dionne Warwick On Growing With Each Decade :
Dionne Warwick On Bacharach And David Songwriting :
