Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick

Marie Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress, television host, and former Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart. She is one of the most-charted female vocalists of all time.

About Dionne Warwick in brief

Summary Dionne WarwickMarie Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress, television host, and former Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart. She is one of the most-charted female vocalists of all time, with 56 of her singles making the Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998. Warwick’s family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a renowned family gospel group and RCA recording artists who frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. Warwick began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She was named after her aunt on her mother’s side. She had a sister, Delia, who died in 2008, and a brother, Mancel Jr., who was killed in an accident in 1968 at age 21. Her parents were both African American, and she also has Native American, Brazilian and Dutch ancestry. The Gospelaires and later the Sweet Inspirations performed on many records cut in New York City for artists such as Garnet Mimms, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke and later Warwick’s recordings, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Warwick was one of hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the fire that destroyed Universal Universal’s Universal Gospelaires in 2008. Her background vocal would continue while she pursued her studies at the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut.

She met Burt Bacharach, who hired her to record demos featuring songs written by him and lyricist Hal David. She later landed her own record deal. The group were in demand for their background work for such artists as the Dr ifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Dinah Washington, Ronnie \”the Hawk\” Hawkins, and Solomon Burke, among many others. The original group consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky, and later included Warwick’s grandparents, Nicholas and Delia Drinkard, and their children: William, Lee and Hansom. Other singers joined the Gospelaires from time to time, including Judy Clay, Cissy Houston and Doris \”Rikii\” Troy, whose chart selection \”Just One Look\”, when she recorded it in 1963, featured backing vocals from the Gospelaire. Warwick remembered, in Biography, that after school, they would catch a bus from East Orange to the Port Authority Terminal, then take the subway to recording studios in Manhattan, and be back in East Orange in time to do their school homework. She has a daughter, Marie Dionne Warrick, who was a Girl Scout for a time. She also has a son, Michael Dionne, who is a professional golfer and has appeared in several reality TV shows and a number of reality TV series, including “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol” She is married to former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.