Dionne Warwick will perform in Australia in 2025.
In 1962, a 21-year-old soul singer named Dionne Warwick had her first hit with Don’t Make Me Over. It was the beginning of an enormous career: in the following years, Warwick’s crystal-clear voice produced enduring pop/R&B classics such as Walk On By, I Say a Little Prayer and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, and she racked up a staggering 100 million record sales globally.
Six decades later, at the age of 84, the singer is still in the game. She is one of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s latest inductees, and a biopic starring Teyana Taylor is in the works. There’s no denying Warwick is a cultural icon.
These days, her singing voice shows the inevitable marks of time and age, but the power and the passion remains. Our Zoom call is audio-only, but her wicked sense of humour and bold personality shine through, a dry chuckle frequently punctuating her sentences.
In January, Warwick will touch down in Australia for her One Last Time tour. Considering she did a tour of the UK and Ireland in 2022 called She’s Back: One Last Time, is this, in fact, the last time? “It might be, we’ll see,” she laughs. “I’m at the point now where what it means is I’m slowing down a bit, and I’m not going to be out on the road as much as I was, and for as long as I had been.”
Warwick and Burt Bacharach in 1968.Credit: Ron Galella
Warwick’s beloved songbook was largely written especially for her by the prolific pop composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David (she immediately corrects me when I only mention Bacharach). They discovered her as a fresh-faced young woman singing in her first music group, the Gospelaires, and asked her to cut a demo.
Warwick and Bacharach famously fell out in the 1970s, but reconciled in 1985 when she took part in his charity rerecording of That’s What Friends Are For with Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. When Bacharach died last year, Warwick said in a statement it was “like losing a family member”.
There’s no such sentimentality in our conversation. When asked whether singing the songs feels any different now that Bacharach has passed away, she answers sharply, “No, it doesn’t – those songs belong to me. They were made for me. They were given to me … I find a great deal of pleasure being able to sing them, and the pleasure actually comes from the fact that people have enjoyed them, and still enjoy them.”
Unlike many other veterans who make a living from touring alone, Warwick is still recording new music. Last year, she collaborated with another living legend, Dolly Parton, on a song called Peace Like a River, a slow, soupy number that shows off both singers’ distinctive vocals.
Warwick performing in Sydney in 2018.Credit: Christopher Pearce
Warwick has one word for the experience: wonderful. “[Parton] sent Peace Like a River to me, and I said, ‘Wow, what a wonderful song … I’d love to record this with you’,” she remembers. “Off to Nashville I went, and we went to the studio. We recorded it together. We did a wonderful video for it. Dolly is a wonderful woman – she’s just full of love and joy and hope, which is so, so wonderful to find in people.”
When we speak, the singer is preparing to step into the studio with Earth, Wind & Fire, her favourite musical group. She’s tight-lipped on the details, but the joy and pride in her voice is evident. It’s not the only time in our chat Warwick mentions the long-running fusion band – she also name-drops them when talking about the music she enjoys listening to (Knight, Wonder and Johnny Mathis also get a shout-out). “I listen to my peers,” she says. “We all grew up in the industry together.”
She stays up to date with newer music through her grandkids, and occasionally hears something she likes. “There are a few songs that have been recorded that are very, very nice, and these babies who are recording them are making their art,” Warwick says. “I am kept abreast of everything based on what my grandbabies are listening to … I’ll get a call saying, ‘Grammy, have you heard this song? Please take a listen’, so I do. They keep me current.”
Dionne Warwick with (from left) Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie at the 1986 Grammy Awards.Credit: AP
One of those artists is American rapper Doja Cat, whose 2023 single Paint the Town Red was a worldwide hit (in Australia, it received the coveted top gong in triple j’s Hottest 100). A sample of Walk on By loops throughout the entire track. “It was hysterical – my granddaughter called me and said, ‘Grammy, did you know that you’re on Doja Cat’s recording?’ And I said, ‘Well, first of all, what’s a Doja Cat?’” Warwick recalls, cackling. “She explained to me what Doja Cat was, and I found out it’s basically my recording through it all … It’s keeping me alive, that’s what it’s doing.”
Warwick’s grandchildren, nieces and nephews also introduced her to Twitter (now X), where she’s reached meme queen status for her snappy missives and observations (to Chance the Rapper in 2020, she wrote, “Hi, @chancetherapper. If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this”) She’s so beloved on the platform that an exhibition, Dionne Warwick: Queen of Twitter, featured at the Newark Arts Festival in 2021 and attracted coverage from The New Yorker.
The social media platform may have changed under Elon Musk’s ownership, but Warwick still logs on when she has thoughts to share. For her fellow posters, a word of advice: “No matter what it is that you have to say, there’s a way to say it, so be kind, and always end with a smile.”
Warwick’s schedule is rarely empty. After a holiday, she will fly to Australia and plans to keep singing and performing until she can’t any more. “When I can’t reach that note, I won’t even think about trying,” Warwick says. “I’ll take my ballet slippers, do my pirouette and say goodbye.”
Dionne Warwick will perform at QPAC Concert Hall in Brisbane on January 14, Hamer Hall in Melbourne on January 16, and The Star Event Centre in Sydney on January 18.
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