Do you have a favorite Dionne Warwick song or memory? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Six-time Grammy winner Dionne Warwick has never been afraid to speak her mind lovingly but directly ask what inquiring minds want to know.
“I am so nosy. I am, I really am,” Warwick told Billboard. “I’m up with the birds in the morning! Because I want to see who’s doing what to whom and why. All during my growing years, my friends would say, ‘Don’t ask Dionne unless you really want to know!’”
That’s why the inquisitive 84-year-old, who refers to herself as “everyone’s Auntie,” has become such a social media sensation in recent years.
The 2024 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame recently tweeted, “I love these young artists. Stop using me for clickbait and find something safe to do.”
In fact, Warwick has become so popular on X (formerly Twitter) that she inspired Saturday Night Live’s Ego Nwodim to do a quirky parody. In the sketch, Nwodim plays Warwick as the flustered host of her talk show, who randomly bursts into songs from her celebrated catalogue and quickly loses interest while interviewing current pop stars and celebrities.
In 2021, Warwick got in on the joke, made a surprise appearance during Nwodim’s standout skit, and tweeted, “You did a wonderful job, baby.”
Her provocative posts tell us she is having a ball serving sarcasm, connecting with her fans and making new celebrity friends. For example, her tweets to hip-hop stars are endearingly funny: “Hi, @chancetherapper. If you are very obviously a rapper, why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this. “How do you send a tweet to @SnoopDogg? Did I do this correctly?”
The no-nonsense vocalist famously invited Snoop and several of his rap peers over for an early morning tongue lashing, with Warwick asking how they explain their misogynist lyrics to their daughters?
“We were the most gangsta as you could be,” Snoop recalled in the 2021 documentary, Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, “But that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I believe we got out-gangstered that day.”
She’s a Role Model
Warwick uses her platform to praise young women of color who are making their mark in entertainment in a positive way, with tweets like: “Doechi is a star,” and “That @Zendaya is very versatile. What a talent for her generation,” and “Too cute. Keke [Palmer] would fit in perfectly with my family. She is welcome anytime.”
Another rising star on her radar is Teyana Taylor, whom she handpicked to portray her in an upcoming biopic (we see the twinning chiseled cheekbones). At the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Taylor honored and channeled the trailblazing Warwick in a ‘60s-inspired bouffant and a chartreuse sequined dress.
“There simply weren’t any other Black women making pop music like she was,” Taylor said.
Taylor added: “Ms. Dionne will always have that fire, whether it’s for her music, for her family, for her life and for the lives of others.”
At the induction ceremony, Warwick performed her hit “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” with Jennifer Hudson. During her acceptance speech, she pointed out she’d been nominated for the Hall of Fame’s Musical Excellence Award three times.
“In any ballgame, three strikes, you are considered to be out. Well, this is the third time that I have been told that I have been nominated for this particular award, and they finally got it right,” Warwick said.
This is The Voice
An international icon, Warwick has the second-most Billboard Hot 100 hits among female artists in the 20th century (56 of her songs have charted on the Hot 100). Her secret ingredient is her signature silky smooth tone honed in her gospel-singing family – first as a young member of the Drinkard Singers and then with sister Dee Dee and aunt Cissy Houston in the trio, The Gospelaires.
“If I quote my mother, she says I came out singing,” Warwick told Oprah Daily.
Born Marie Dionne Warrick (Warwick was a typo on her first single that stuck) in a racially diverse community in East Orange, New Jersey, her distinctive vocal style and poised persona have inspired other music superstars to represent Black excellence and pursue their passion, including two late music greats – fan turned friend Luther Vandross (we’ll always cherish his seven-minute rendition of Warwick’s “A House Is Not a Home”) and her cousin Whitney Houston.
“Whitney came up exactly the way we all did, in the church choir. It was just preordained, she was going to sing,” Warwick told People.
In the dynamic documentary Luther: Never Too Much, Vandross said, via an archive, “I was about 13, and I had gone to see Dionne Warwick at the Brooklyn Fox Theater. I think I knew from that moment that I wanted to be able to affect people the way she affected me that day. ”
A Songwriter’s Muse
Warwick’s early career launched soon after she met composer Burt Bacharach during session work. From 1962 to 1971, the sophisticated lady made the music of Bacharach and his lyricist partner Hal David soar with crossover hits like “Alfie,” “Walk on By,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” and “What the World Needs Now.”
“Right from the first time I ever saw Dionne, I thought she had a special kind of grace and elegance that made her stand out…To me, Dionne looked like she could be a star,” the late Bacharach wrote of their first meeting in his memoir, Anyone Who Had a Heart.
“The Artist Who Bridged the Gap”
Throughout her illustrious five-decade career, she has sold over 100 million records worldwide. According to Rolling Stone, her songs still stream north of 3.5 million plays per month.
Boomers certainly recall Warwick’s early hits, including her 1962 debut single, “Don’t Make Me Over,” a title that encapsulates the Jersey girl’s strong sense of self.
“My parents instilled in me, as have my mentors during the course of my career: You be who you are. You cannot be anyone other than you, and I truly believe that,” she told Oprah Daily.
The mother of two sons, David and Damon Elliott, added: “And as a matter of fact, I like me, so I don’t have any reason to want to be anybody other than me. ”
Meanwhile, the Gen Xers among us grew up singing along with Warwick’s quiet storm grooves, such as “Deja Vu,” “Heartbreaker,” “Then Came You” with the Spinners, and “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye,” her duet with Vandross.
We also fondly remember her as the stylish first host of the ’80s music countdown show, Solid Gold. The diva even sang the catchy theme song: “The music has magic. You know you can catch it. If you let the songs take control…”
Music lovers of all stripes embraced Warwick’s biggest hit, “That’s What Friends are For,” performed with her real-life comrades Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John. Written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, the enduring anthem won the 1986 Grammy for Song of the Year and raised millions of dollars for AIDS charities.
What the World Needs Now is More Dionne
Although her touring days are winding down, Warwick is still giving fans the best that she’s got with her “One Last Time” tour, with dates through fall 2025.
A reviewer for The Philippine Star wrote: “The audience’s singing and swaying along to the music of their youth lasted all throughout the performance, with Warwick holding court, simply seated at the front with a mic in hand.”
On the recording side, she still makes music that matters and moves us. Her latest albums, 2019’s She’s Back and Dionne Warwick & The Voices of Christmas, feature collaborations with Musiq Soulchild and Brian McKnight, and Chloe x Halle and Johnny Mathis, respectively.
“The world needs some great music right now, music that brings us all together to hold hands and sort our problems peacefully,” she told The Sunday Post.
Do you have a favorite Dionne Warwick song or memory? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
