Dionne Warwick – A True Soul Diva
November 7, 2008 by admin
Filed under Featured Artists
Five times Grammy Award winning female, who stands second after Aretha Franklin for the majority of Billboard Hot 100, for her genres R&B, soul music, urban, soft rock and adult contemporary, is none other than Dionne Warwick.
Not only this, Dionne Warwick has been an activist and former Ambassador of health and humanitarian, plus, she is the United Nations Global Ambassador for food and agriculture organization.
Dionne Warwick was born in the year 1940 as Marie Dionne Warwick. She started her career in East Orange where she used to sing gospel at New Hope Methodist Church. Earlier, Dionne Warwick’s father, Mancel Warwick was a Pullman porter, chef and a gospel record promoter for Chess Records. Later on, he became the certified public accountant that is why Dionne Warwick was so much influenced from her father.
Dionne Warwick performed her first solo at the age of six and then later joined the group “The Drinkard Singers”. This group included Dionne Warwick’s family members like her aunt Emily Drinkard Houston, Dionne Warwick’s sister Delia Warwick and Lee Drinkard Warwick, who was the manager of “The Drinkard Singers”. The group had one more member, Dionne Warwick’s brother, but he died at an age of eighteen due to an accident.
In the year 1950, Dionne Warwick gave her first broadcasted performance with “The Drinkard Singers”. In an interview Dionne Warwick stated that when she was living in East Orange, she felt the area was a true United Nations of neighborhood. Dionne Warwick never faced any harsh discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and color.
In the year 1959, Dionne Warwick completed her graduation from East Orange High School and was awarded with a scholarship for Music edification in Hartford, Connecticut, from Hart College of Music. Previously, in the year 1958, Dionne Warwick along with her sister Delia and friends Myma Utley as well as Carol Slade, formed a group called “The Gospelaires” and also they gave their first performance in the well known Apollo Theater along with winning weekly amateur contests. After that many people joined the band like Judy Clay, Doris Troy and Cissy Houston. The band started singing the background sessions for many people and this was the foremost step towards her eminent career.
Dionne Warwick was first recognized by a famous song composer Burt Bacharach who gave a chance to Dionne Warwick to record some demo recordings for his compositions. So, Dionne Warwick recorded a demo “Its love that really counts”, which was also appreciated by the president of Scepter Records, Florence Greenberg.
So ultimately she signed with Burt Bacharach production and Scepter Records. This was a start for a bright future and after that she gave a numerous sizzling hits like “Don’t make me Over”, “Anyone who had a heart”, “Walk on by”, “Reach out for me”, “Trains and Boats and Planes”, “I say a little prayer” and many more top hits throughout her astounding career.
So keep listening to Dionne Warwick and jive to her lively music.
TJ Grooves
Rare Soul Grooves & Soul Music TV
I’ve followed Dionne’s career for quite a long time now. It gives me pleasure to know that her music continues to be heard in movies, in tv, and in radio. Whitney Houston’s her cousin, I believe. That sure is one talented family. Good looks too.
I believe Dionne Warwick is an icon and today’s singers will never match her voice and talent.
Dionne Warwick I’d forgotten how wonderfully produced this music was — and how pure her voice was. This was in the days before all of the amazing technology we have today. It still holds the same power, purity and resonance today as it did all those years ago.
Dionne Warwick’s sister Dee Dee Warwick died Saturday October 19, 2008 at a New Jersey nursing home.
Dionne Warwick was named the U.S. Ambassador of Health in 1987
Dionne Warwick, for years an aficionado of psychic phenomena, was advised by famed astrologist Linda Goodman in 1971 to add a small “e” to her last name, making Warwick “WARWICKe” for good luck and to recognize her married name and her spouse, actor and drummer William ” Bill” Elliott. Goodman convinced Warwick that the extra small “e” would add a vibration needed to balance her last name and bring her even more good fortune in her marriage and her professional life.
The 900 number psychic service was active from 1991 to 1998. According to press statements throughout the 1990s, the program was the most successful infomercial for several years and Warwick earned in excess of three million dollars per year as spokesperson for the network.
Dionne stated to Wesley Hyatt in his The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits that she was not fond of “Heartbreaker” but recorded the tune because she trusted The Bee Gees’ judgment that it would be a hit.
Swinging World. Scholarly articles probe the relationship between the Beatles and the nouvelle vague films of Jean-Luc Godard, discuss “the brio and elegance” of Dionne Warwick’s singing style as a “pleasurable but complex” event to be “experienced without condescension.”
The mid 1960s to early 1970s became an even more successful time period for Warwick, who saw a string of Gold selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles.
Warwick was named the Bestselling Female Vocalist in the Cash Box Magazine Poll in 1964, with six chart hits in that year.
Dionne’s soulful rendering of Walk On By, plus her first tour in France led her to be dubbed Paris’ Black Pearl, and to being introduced live on stage by Marlene Dietrich!
I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself is a song that gives me a little shiver of nostalgia. Dionne Warwick is a hard working classy lady, and it doesn’t surprise me that she moved to Brazil, because of the way South Americans are so devoted to family and able to be happy.
Dionne Warwick – A True Soul Diva!…
Five times Grammy Award winning female, who stands second after Aretha Franklin for the majority of Billboard Hot 100, for her genres R&B, soul music, urban, soft rock and adult contemporary, is none other than Dionne Warwick. Not only this, Dionne…