LI F E S TO RY

From pioneering pop music to fighting for civil rights, Dionne

Warwick has always been a force of nature (look no further than her
Twitter account for proof). In the wake of her internet renaissance,
we bow down to the legendary artist and activist. By Alley Pascoe

ionne Warwick was and eventually managed the band. work of their own at that time.” Her
preparing to taste the Warwick recalled that her mother father, Mancel L. Warrick, was a
sweetness of success. was employed at an electrical plant minister and worked as a porter for
It was 1962 and a and never missed a day of work. “I the railroad, considered a prestigious
21-year-old Warwick believe this taught us the worth of job for Black men in that period.
was standing on the cusp of her big responsibility and the importance Warwick first took to the stage at
break, having just recorded a demo for of earning your way through life,” she the age of six, when she was given a
the song “Make It Easy on Yourself”, later revealed in her autobiography. standing ovation for her performance
which was meant to be her first single. “This was especially significant given of “Jesus Loves Me” during Sunday
When Warwick found out that music there were not many role models for church proceedings. One round of
producer Burt Bacharach had given women who aspired to careers and applause was all it took to propel her
the track to a male artist, Jerry Butler,
the taste in her mouth turned sour.
During a heated argument, Warwick
raised hell. “We have a problem here,”
she yelled at Bacharach. “You want me
to record with you? I am who I am.
Don’t make me over, man!”
In a twist of fate – or a righting of
a wrong – the argument inspired what
would become Warwick’s debut single.
“Don’t Make Me Over” was released in
October 1962 and it went on to reach
the top five of the R&B charts (her
surname, “Warrick”, was misspelled
on the label, so she became Dionne
Warwick). But her penchant for
fighting the patriarchy didn’t change.
Born Marie Dionne Warrick on
December 12, 1940, the artist’s life
started in New Jersey where her
family were part of the gospel group Warwick performing
the Drinkard Singers. Her mother, in December 1969.
OPPOSITE PAGE
Lee Drinkard Warrick, was one of The star in 1975.
the original members of the group

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LI FE S TO RY
towards a music career. At 17, she
won Amateur Night at Harlem’s
legendary Apollo Theater and she
soon began working steadily in a
group of backup singers. But Warwick
wasn’t built for being anyone’s backup;
she was destined to be front and
centre. Bacharach, the aforementioned
music producer and composer, spotted
her star power and signed her to his
production company. “She has a
tremendous strong side and a delicacy
when singing softly – like miniature
ships in bottles,” he is quoted as saying.
Bottles are easily smashed,
however, and Warwick faced the
shattering pressure of being a Black
woman trying to make it in a male-
dominated industry in the 1960s. This
was a time when women needed their
husband’s signature to get a credit
card, when they could be fired for
falling pregnant and when the
contraceptive pill was still illegal
in some US states. It was also a time
when racial segregation existed, when
civil rights were but a dream for Dr
Martin Luther King Jr, and when
50 per cent of African-Americans
lived in poverty. This time of turmoil
and injustice was the backdrop to
Warwick’s success. When her album
was released in Europe, a white
woman was featured on the cover and
Warwick’s fans did not know she was
Black. While trying to appeal to both
Black and white audiences, Warwick
was accused of being a sell-out and
criticised for mostly working with
white male producers, like Bacharach.
After she performed a 15-minute
medley at New York’s famed Copaca-
bana, Barbra Streisand’s manager came
into Warwick’s dressing room and told
her she couldn’t just sit on a stool and sing
for 15 minutes without saying a word to
the audience. “Well, I just did,” she bit
back. “And I got a standing ovation.”
Later on, Warwick revealed, “I
have always been motivated by people
who tell me what I can’t do.” That
pushed her to continue to release hits
and become known as the artist who
“bridged the gap”, defying genres and
racism. Her original version of the
song “I Say a Little Prayer” reached
number four on the Billboard pop
chart in 1967 and received acclaim
when Aretha Franklin released a cover
the following year. In 1969, at the
Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles,
Warwick was the first African-
American solo female artist of her
generation to win the prestigious
Grammy for Best Contemporary
Female Vocalist Performance, for
“Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”.
It was the highlight of her career,
but there were many more to come.
“THE MALE EGO IS A
FRAGILE THING. IT’S HARD
WHEN THE WOMAN IS
THE BREADWINNER.
I HAVE ALWAYS TAKEN
CARE OF MYSELF”
Warwick’s first
European record
cover pictured a
white woman.
In a 1981 studio
photo session.
BELOW With her
cousin Whitney
Houston at a
1990 awards
presentation.
T
o say that Dionne Warwick
is a feminist icon might
downplay the challenges she
has fought and overcome as
a Black woman who grew
up during the Civil Rights Movement
in America and who became one of
the highest charting female vocalists
during the rock era of 1955-1999
(second only to Aretha Franklin).
Warwick was a pioneer in the pop
genre and continues to be a force
for change in the music industry. For
many years, she’s been an open critic
of the misogynistic tone of gangster
rappers who spit rhymes about bitches
and hoes, famously inviting Snoop
Dogg and Tupac Shakur to her house
to “call me a bitch” face-to-face.
When she wasn’t busy calling out
sexism or selling 75 million singles
worldwide, Warwick was blazing trails
in her personal life. She married
William Elliott, a television actor, not
once but twice. First tying the knot in
1966, Warwick divorced him in 1967
and then remarried three months later.
For Warwick, it was a case of “can’t do
with, can’t do without, so I married
 CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Elton
John, Warwick, Gladys Knight
and Stevie Wonder performing
at the AIDS Concert ’88 in
Washington, DC; her Taylor Swift
tweets; giving a tribute to Berry
Gordy and Smokey Robinson in
2023; with her sons in 2014; and
at the 1969 Grammys with her
husband, William Elliott.
him again”. The couple had two sons,
David and Damon, before divorcing
again in 1975. During the divorce,
Elliott requested $US2000 a month
in spousal support, which was denied.
“I was the breadwinner. The male ego
is a fragile thing. It’s hard when the
woman is the breadwinner. All my life,
the only man who ever took care of me
financially was my father. I have always
taken care of myself,” said Warwick.
As well as taking care of herself,
Warwick has also looked after the
community. A firm advocate for
LGBTQI+ rights, Warwick recorded
“That’s What Friends Are For” as a
charity single with Elton John, Gladys
Knight and Stevie Wonder in 1985.
The song topped the Billboard charts
and won a Grammy. Warwick donated
all profits, more than $US3 million, to
AIDS causes. “You have to be granite
not to want to help people with AIDS,
because the devastation that it causes
is so painful to see. I was so hurt to
see my friend die with such agony,”
she told The Washington Post in 1988,
GETTY IMAGES.
before going on to serve as the US
Ambassador of Health under the
Reagan and Bush administrations.
If you thought Warwick would
slow down as she got older, you
clearly haven’t been paying attention.
She was a force as a twenty-something
pop star and she’s still a force as a
grandmother. In 2002, the then
61-year-old was detained at Miami
International Airport after security
found 11 suspected marijuana joints
in her lipstick case; she was charged
with possession. In 2013, she declared
bankruptcy, supposedly due to the
mismanagement of her business
affairs and amassing a tax bill of
about $US10 million.
Now, at 82, Warwick has been
crowned the “Queen of Twitter”. She
issued a much-needed warning against
idiocy when she tweeted in early 2021,
“Remember: If I follow you today, I can
unfollow you tomorrow if foolishness
“YOU’D HAVE TO BE
GRANITE NOT TO WANT
TO HELP PEOPLE WITH
AIDS BECAUSE THE
DEVASTATION IT CAUSES
IS SO PAINFUL TO SEE”
is your thing.” Later that year,
she spoke for everyone when she
came out against food combination
abominations, like Oreos dipped in
mayonnaise. And then she became the
internet’s favourite grandmother when
Taylor Swift re-released a version of
“All Too Well” in 2021, singing about
leaving her scarf at an ex’s house
(cough Jake Gyllenhaal cough). In a
series of tweets, Warwick called on
Gyllenhaal to do the right thing: “If
that young man has Taylor’s scarf, he
should return it.” She went on to say,
“It does not belong to you. Box it up
and I will pay the cost of postage, Jake.”
And so, Dionne Warwick continues
doing what she has always done best:
fighting for women to receive what is
rightfully theirs. Also: sticking it to
people who tell her what she can’t do.
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