Dionne Warwick

About Dionne Warwick

An American singer, actress, television host, Dionne Warwick is also a former Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization. She was in a partnership with Burt Bacharach and who was also a Psychic Friends spokesperson. She performed with her mother, aunts, and uncles as a part of the Drinkard Singers from an early age. She has also been a Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization. She released successful singles like "Don't Make Me Over", "I Say A Little Prayer", "Walk On By", "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?", "Anyone Who Had a Heart", and many others. She ranks among the 40 biggest hitmakers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboard's Hot 100 pop singles chart. Recently, Warwick, who turns 80 next weekend, took to Twitter on Saturday with a burning question for the 27-year-old rapper.

Famous For

• Being an American singer, actress, television host.
• For being a former Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Source: @metrotimes

Early Life of Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick took birth on 12th December 1940 with the real name or full name of Marie Dionne Warrick in Orange, New Jersey, U.S. However, she was raised in East Orange, New Jersey, and was a Girl Scout for a time. She holds an American nationality and mixed ethnicity. She has African-American, Dutch, Native American, English, Irish, Scottish, and Brazilian (disputed) ancestry. Analogously, she is from a Christianity religion and her race is white. She happily celebrates her birthday on 12th December of every year and she has celebrated her 79th birthday ass of 2019, though as her birthdate, her star sign is Sagittarius. She was born to Lee Drinkard (mother) and Mancel Warrick (father). Her mother was manager of the Drinkard Singers, and her father was a Pullman porter, chef, record promoter, and CPA. Dionne was named after her aunt on her mother's side. She had a sister, Delia ("Dee Dee"), who died in 2008, and a brother, Mancel Jr., who was killed in an accident in 1968 at age 21. She was educated at  East Orange High School in 1959, as she pursued her passion at the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Career of Dionne Warwick

The Gospelaires

• Dionne Warwick commenced her singing career as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey as she joined the Gospelaires which later became the recording group the Sweet Inspirations.

Discovery

• Dionne was noticed by the song's composer, Burt Bacharach while she was performing background on the Drifters' recording of their 1962 release "Mexican Divorce" and was signed to Bacharach's and David's production company, according to Warwick, which in turn was signed to Scepter Records in 1962 by Greenberg. Her debut Scepter album, "Presenting Dionne Warwick", was released in early 1963.

Early stardom

• Scepter Records released her first solo single, "Don't Make Me Over" in November 1962 as her name was misspelled on the single's label, and she began using the new spelling, "Warwick", both professionally and personally.
• Her fourth single, "Anyone Who Had a Heart", released in November 1963 whereas her biggest UK hits were "Walk On By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?".
• Similarly, she launched her ninth album "Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls", in 1968 and on the soundtrack to "Alfie". She was also named the Bestselling Female Vocalist in the "Cash Box Magazine" poll in 1964.
• Besides, the January 1967 LP "Here Where There Is Love" was her first RIAA certified Gold album, and featured "Alfie" and two 1966 hits as her follow-up to "I Say a Little Prayer", "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls", was unusual in several respects.
• As well, actress Barbara Parkins suggested that Warwick be considered to sing the film's theme song which was written by songwriting team Andre and Dory Previn while the film version of "Valley of the Dolls" was being made though she also re-recorded version of the movie theme (#2 for weeks), "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" and several new Bacharach-David compositions.
• Warwick's final Bacharach/David penned single on the Scepter label was March 1971's "Who Gets the Guy", and her final "official" Scepter single release was "He's Moving On" b/w "Amanda", both from the soundtrack of the motion picture adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's "The Love Machine".
• Also, she had become the priority act of Scepter Records with the release of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in 1963 though she had sold an estimated 35 million singles and albums internationally in less than nine years and more than 16 million singles in the U.S. alone. 
• In 1970, Warwick formed her own label, Sonday Records, of which she was president but left the family atmosphere of Scepter Records for Warner Bros. Records, for a $5 million contract in 1971.
• Warwick returned to New York City's A&R Studios in late 1971 to begin recording her first album for the new label, the self-titled Dionne in January 1972.

Warner era

• Warwick's career stalled in the early 1970s although she remained a top concert draw throughout the world as she has recorded 1974's "Then Came You".
• Analogously, she has recorded five albums with Warners: "Dionne" (1972), "Just Being Myself" (1973), "Then Came You" (1975),  "Track of the Cat" (1975), "Love at First Sight" (1977) but her five-year contract with Warners expired in 1977, and with that, she ended her stay at the label.

Source: @mm-group.org

Arista

• She then moved to Arista and released her RIAA-certified million-seller "I'll Never Love This Way Again" in 1979 and became the first female artist in the history of the awards to win in both categories the same year.
• She launched her second Arista album, "No Night So Long" in 1980 as well as hosted a two-hour TV special called Solid Gold '79" in the following year of January. 
• Her song "Heartbreaker" became one of Warwick's biggest international hits, returning her to the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 as well as #1 Adult Contemporary and No. 2 in both the UK and Australia.
• Then, she launched "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" in 1983 as she contributed her voice to the multi-Grammy Award-winning charity song "We Are the World" in 1985 as well as recorded the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) benefit single "That's What Friends Are For" in the following year.
• Furthermore, she released her most successful album of the 1980s, titled "Friends" though her most publicized album was 1993's "Friends Can Be Lovers".
• Besides, she was nominated to be Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 16th October 2002 as her first Christmas album was released in the following year. The CD, entitled "My Favorite Time of the Year".
• She appeared on the 24th May 2006, fifth-season finale of "American Idol" and signed with Concord Records in 2006 after a fifteen-year tenure at Arista, which had ended in 1994.  Her first and only release for the label was "My Friends and Me", a duets album containing reworkings of her old hits, very similar to her 1998 CD "Dionne Sings Dionne" and a compilation CD of her greatest hits and love songs, "The Love Collection", entered the UK pop charts at number 27 on 16th February 2008.
• In the following year, her second gospel album, "Why We Sing", was released whereas she began recording an album of songs from the Sammy Cahn and Jack Wolf songbooks in 2008. The finished recording, entitled "Only Trust Your Heart", was released in 2011.
• Also, she has appeared on "The Celebrity Apprentice 4" and was dismissed from her "apprenticeship" to Donald Trump during the fourth task of the season.
• Likewise, she has performed in several shows like "The Jonathan Ross Show" though she collaborated with country singer Billy Ray Cyrus for his song "Hope Is Just Ahead" on 19th September 2013.
• She also made a cameo appearance in the Christian drama "Let There Be Light" directed by Kevin Sorbo.
• Additionally, she has starred in season 3 of "The Masked Singer" as the Mouse in 2020. Warwick came back during the first part of the season three finale to sing "What the World Needs Now is Love" despite being eliminated in the second round.
• She has also made a guest appearance during Gladys Knight's and Patti Labelle's Verzuz battle. Together they performed Warick's song, That's What Friends Are For, and closed with their collaborative song Superwoman (Karyn White song).
• She lists her honorary doctorate from Hartt among those awarded by six other institutions: Hartt College, Bethune-Cookman University, Shaw University, Columbia College of Chicago, Lincoln College, Illinois [May 2010, Doctor of Arts (hon.)], and University of Maryland Eastern Shore in "My Life, as I See It: An Autobiography".
• In addition, as a piece of fresh news, Warwick, who turns 80 next weekend, took to Twitter on Saturday with a burning question for the 27-year-old rapper: "If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this." 
• "Sorry I'm still freaking out that u know who I am. This is amazing!" he replied, before adding he would go by "whatever you wanna call me Ms. Warwick. "God bless you," he added.

Honors, Awards, and Achievements of Dionne Warwick

• Grammy Hall of Fame
• American Music Awards
• Billboard Music Awards
• People's Choice Awards
• NAACP Image Awards
• Women's World Awards
• ASCAP Awards
• Trumpet Awards

Personal Life of Dionne Warwick

Reflecting on Dionne Warwick's personal life, she is a married woman. She was married to actor and drummer William Elliott as the couple divorced in May 1967, they reconciled and were remarried in Milan, Italy, in August 1967. She gave birth to her first son, David Elliot on 18th January 1969 whereas her second son Damon Elliott was born in 1973. But again the couple separated and Warwick was granted a divorce in December 1975 in Los Angeles on 30th May 1975. The court denied Elliott's request for $2,000 a month (equivalent to $9,500 in 2019) in support pending a community property trial, and for $5,000, when he insisted he was making $500 a month in comparison to Warwick making $100,000 a month (equivalent to $475,000 in 2019). Warwick stated "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." Currently, she is living a single life with her family. Furthermore, talking about her sexual orientation, she is straight. 

Source: @newarena

Additionally, Warwick was arrested at Miami International Airport for possession of marijuana in 2003. It was discovered that she had 11 suspected marijuana cigarettes inside her carry-on luggage, hidden in a lipstick container. She was charged with possessing marijuana totaling less than five grams. 

Net Worth of Dionne Warwick

Moving towards Dionne Warwick's net worth, she has a worth of around $10 million as of 2020 though she has also a handsome amount of salary too which is also in millions of dollars per year. She listed liabilities that included nearly $7 million owed to the Internal Revenue Service for the years 1991 to 1999 and more than $3 million in business taxes owed to the state of California due to the reported mismanagement of her business affairs. She also was listed with a tax delinquency of $2,665,305.83 in personal income tax and a tax lien was filed on 24th July 1997. In addition, her major source of income is from singing career.

Body Measurement of Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick is a beautiful and adaptable singer who stands at a perfect height of 5 ft 7 in or 170 cm with a balanced weight of 66 kg or 145.5 lbs. Warwick was also hospitalized after a fall in the shower at her home on 24th January 2015. After ankle surgery, she was released from the hospital and now, she is healthy, fit, and fine. She is a woman with black hair however, her hair has turned gray with her advancing age. Her eyes color are dark brown as her body build type is average.