• December 12, 1940
• Born Marie Dionne Warrick, her last name was misspelled on the label of her first single, "Don't Make Me Over," so she started using the incorrect "Warwick." She added an "E" to her last name in the early 1970s on the advice of a psychic claiming that the extra letter would give her "positive energy" and "great success." Her string of hits (22 Top 40s in eight years) suddenly stopped - she had only one Top 40 hit with the modified name, and THAT was a collaboration with the Spinners ("Then Came You") when they were red-hot. The extra "E" was removed when she changed record labels in 1979 - and the hits resumed.
• She hosted the musical variety show Solid Gold from 1980-81 and again in the '85-'86 season.
• Although she is known as a solo singer, both her #1 hits were collaborations: "Then Came You" (with the Spinners) and "That's What Friends Are For" ("Dionne Warwick and Friends" - Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John were the "friends," despite Warwick and Wonder meeting for the first time in the studio).
• She started her recording career singing in the background of a few Drifters songs (Leiber and Stoller producing) and singing demo recordings of songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
• The songs she made famous are notoriously difficult to sing. "She got her own little world," Darlene Love said in her Songfacts interview. "The only person who really sang her songs was Luther Vandross, and that's because he made it his song."
• Originally she wanted to teach music and not perform; she has a doctorate in music education from Hartt College of Music in Connecticut.
• She is the niece of Cissy Houston, cousin of Whitney Houston, and sister of Dee Dee Warwick, who sang the original version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me." Like Dionne, Dee Dee also used "Warwick" as her stage name instead of her birth name, Warrick.
• In 1985, Warwick, became a spokesperson for the Psychic Friends Network, which was the first national psychic hotline. She touted the network on widely seen infomercials.
• She was an early supporter of AIDS research and was appointed US Ambassador of Health in 1987 for her work.
• For a while, Warwick has had more chart hits than any female singer in history with the exception of Aretha Franklin. Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj later passed her.
• She appears in the movies Slaves (1969), The Love Machine (1971), The Day The Music Died (1977) and Rent-A-Cop (1987). >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 6
• Warwick is a big tennis fan. She told The Mail on Sunday's Event magazine: "I watch any match I can - it doesn't matter who is playing."
• Her demo recording of "Take It Easy on Yourself" interested the owner of Scepter Records - she was signed on the spot.
• She became quite popular on Twitter in 2020 with a stream of funny and often self-deprecating tweets, many dealing with other celebrities. It's not clear who is managing her account, but Warwick has said she gets help from her niece.
• In the 1990s, Dionne Warwick, upset with misogyny in rap lyrics, invited Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, and other rap stars, including Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, to her home for a meeting, She demanded that they call her a "bitch" to her face, aiming to teach them a lesson about respectful expression. Snoop Dogg later said, "I believe we got out-gangstered that day."

Comments: 5

• Tim from West Hollywood, CaAnnabelle,
  
  Please allow me to set the record straight as Dionne is a longtime friend of mine.
  
  Dionne and Whitney ARE cousins! Dionne's mom, Lee Drinkard (who recently passed away in 2005)and Cissy (Drinkard) Houston are sisters thus making Dionne and Whitney cousins.
• Annabelle from Eugene, OrIf Dionne Warwick is Whitney Houston's cousin, does that mean that her mother is the sister of Whitney Houston's mother or Father? Or does it mean that her father might be Whitney's mother's brother?
• Asti from Cologne, GermanyThey aren't cousins Dionne Warwick ist the aunt of Whitney Houston
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, Scannabelle, I don't think it's just a rumor. I also heard that they are cousins.
• Annabelle from Eugene, OrSomebody spread the rumor that Dionne Warrick and Whitney Houston are cousins.

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