Dionne Warwick

Marie Dionne Warrick was born on December 12, 1940, in East Orange, New Jersey. Dionne began singing in church during her childhood years. Occasionally she sang as a soloist and fill-in voice for the renowned Drinkard Singers, a group comprised of her mother Lee along with her aunts and uncles.

As a back up singer behind many of the biggest starts of the late 50’s and early 60's including Dinah Washington, Brook Benton, Chuck Jackson, and Solomon Burke, Dionne was discovered by Burt Bacharach, who brought her to the attention of Scepter Records. It would be the start of a long string of hits for both Dionne and Bacharach as they together would ride the Hit Parade time and time again for more than a decade, starting in 1962 with “Don’t Make Me Over”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Walk on By”, “Message to Michael”, “Trains and Boats and Planes”, “Alfie”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, the “Theme from 'Valley of the Dolls'” and the 1968 Grammy Winner “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”.

“This Girl’s In Love with You” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” earned gold records in 1969. Teaming up with another hit making group, The Spinners, in 1974 Dionne reached the top of the charts with “Then Came You”. It was followed by a song produced by Barry Manilow, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “Déjà vu” (1979). Both earned Grammy Awards, making Dionne the first female artist to win the Best Female Pop and Best Female R&B Performance Award.

It was a teaming in 1982 with Bee Gee producer Barry Gibb that “Heartbreaker” would give Dionne Warwick a top ten single hit and an international album chart topper. In 1985 Dionne called on Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder to join her for another #1 multi-million seller, “That’s What Friends Are For” to raise money for AIDS research when the disease was new and inevitably deadly, rather than the chronically controllable infection that expensive drugs made it now.

Turning author, Dionne wrote her first book. "My Point of View", a collection of "pearls of wisdom" that she has gathered through the years. She provides her own thoughts and wisdom on various subjects, all highlighted by personal and rare photographs of her journey.

Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 36 million viewers of the 2006 American Idol television show watched Dionne Warwick sing a medley of her hits accompanied by Burt Bacharach on the piano.

Today, Dionne divides her time equally between her homes in Brazil and in the United States.