The New ‘Queen of Twitter’ Turns 80: Dionne Warwick’s Life in Pictures

By JC Villamere. 12 Dec 2020 1:01 PM

Hold the trolls, the new diva of Jack Dorsey’s dreams is turning 80! We knew she could slay a Bacharach track but setting up a collab with Chance the Rapper via social media is not something Dionne Warwick has been known for in the past. And she’s been known for a lot of great things! Here are some of them.

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Ice Cube the Rapper with Dionne the Singer

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What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love

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She Knows How To Handle The Trolls

“To everyone asking who is running this account. Nice to meet you,” Warwick tweeted on November 20, trying to put to rest the theory that her account was run by a feisty staffer who, lo, might get this beloved icon’s brand tarnished on Twitter by being too saucy. As if there is such a thing as “too saucy”.
Don't Make Her Over
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“I was named after you!” a fan tweeted at Warwick last month. She replied, “I get a lot of tweets like this. Maybe I should start a club for just us Dionnes.” She was born Marie Dionne Warrick on December 12, 1940. When she released her first solo single, 1962’s "Don't Make Me Over”, her name was misspelled as Warwick and she stuck with the moniker makeover.
Hot Girl
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Have you read Warwick's classic 'hot girl' tweet? We present it here, in its entirety: "I don’t know what a “hot girl” is, but women support women in this house! I am happy to see kind people receive recognition. That’s all. (I’m turning 80. Please do not tell me what a “hot girl” is 👀)" Warwick picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys last year. That’s her fifth Grammy. She is one of the most-charted female vocalists of all time. She’s a singer, actress, television host, and former Goodwill Ambassador. And she’s a hot girl. After fans explained on Twitter that the 'hot girl' concept is a call to live your most confident and unapologetic life, the diva replied, “Thank you for telling me what a ‘hot girl’ is, even though I specifically asked you not to."
'All These Things That I've Done'
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Warwick began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Her mom Lee, her aunt Cissy Houston, and various other family members, including Warwick herself for a time, were part of the Drinkard Singers, a renowned gospel group. Now, come in close. Closer. We all have to squish in together so we can fit down this rabbit hole and find out that the Drinkard Sisters, with its revolving group of members, became the Gospelaires and then became the Sweet Inspirations, a sought-after group of background singers. They’re on “Brown Eyed Girl”, the 1967 hit/wedding reception dance floor staple by alleged Covidiot Van Morrison. In 1969, they became Elvis’s opening act and live background singers. That’s them on backup on Jimi Hendrix’s "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" in ’67, Frankie Valli's No. 1 hit "Grease" from the 1978 movie, and the Killers’ 2004 song of the summer, "All These Things That I've Done”. Okay, spread out, spread out everybody. Farther. We’re out of the rabbit hole and now we’re talking about how Warwick was discovered in 1962.
A Drifter No More
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Warwick was singing backup on the Drifters' 1962 song "Mexican Divorce" when her voice and presence were noticed by the song's composer Burt Bacharach. Bacharach, now 92, is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century pop music. He has six Grammys and three Oscars and with Warwick singing his songs, they had a string of hits in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The popularity of some of these classics has been noted on Twitter: "The amount of “Walk On By” puns in my replies have completely outnumbered those asking me if I know the way to San Jose...Which I do. Thank you for asking," Warwick tweeted.
The Queen of Twitter
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Move over, Chrissy Teigen! Warwick has entered the chat and ascended to the throne. And did you hear “Don’t Make Me Over” in “The Queen’s Gambit” during last week's Netflix binge? Now, the Prophet Costanza taught us that adjacent to trash IS trash, but Warwick shows us that adjacent to royalty IS royalty as she meets Queen Elizabeth while flanked by George Burns and Frank Sinatra in 1983. Wait — it gets more 1983-er. The banquet for the Queen was hosted on the set of “MASH”, which was airing its final episode that night. Also in attendance were Michael Caine, Nancy Reagan, Elton John, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, and Jimmy Stewart. Sinatra, Warwick, Burns, and Perry Como performed at the event. No pressure.
Auntie
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“Will you be my auntie?” is a common question fans lob at Warwick on Twitter and she universally says yes. A lot of people think that she’s Whitney Houston’s aunt but she’s not. She’s her cousin.
Pour One Out For 'Songs of Innocence'
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Look at this list of top female artists ever and the number of Hot 100 entries they've had on the Billboard chart:
1. Taylor Swift, 113
2. Nicki Minaj, 110
3. Aretha Franklin, 73
4. Beyonce, 63
5. Rihanna, 62
6. Madonna, 57
7. Dionne Warwick, 56
8. Connie Francis, 53
9. Ariana Grande, 52
10. Miley Cyrus 52
11. Brenda Lee, 48
12. Mariah Carey, 48
Dionne Warwick has more slaps than Ariana Grande and people on Twitter are still dragging her for hosting a corny 1994 infomercial advertising the Psychic Friends Network. (It was the most successful infomercial of all time, BTW.) But Warwick isn’t herself a psychic and she has no time for your head games. “Don't you think I would have warned you all about iTunes making you have that U2 album if I were actually psychic?” she tweeted.
Ice Cube the Rapper with Dionne the Singer
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We have all contemplated why he is named Kermit the Frog when he is clearly a frog, when Grover is the one who should have his species set out as part of his name because of its ambiguity. But have you transferred this logic to examine the name of Chance the Rapper? Warwick has, and she took to Twitter for answers. “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 tweeted. Warwick is a rap fan who enjoyed the “Barbershop: The Next Cut" screening with Ice Cube a few years ago (pictured) and counts “Holy” by Chance the Rapper and Justin Bieber among her fave spins right now. Chance responded, "Sorry I'm still freaking out that u know who I am. This is amazing!" adding in another tweet, "I'll be whatever you wanna call me Ms. Warwick. God bless you." Warwick responded, "Of course I know you. You're THE rapper. Let's rap together. I'll message you.” She did. They are. Is Twitter losing its mind in the best possible way over this? Yes.
What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love
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“I’m turning 80! All I want for my birthday is a donation to Hunger: Not Impossible to help feed families in need," the tireless charity worker shared on Twitter. After years of supporting causes like Easter Seals, in 1985 Warwick recorded the AmFAR benefit single "That's What Friends Are For" with Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. It raised over $3 million for AIDS research and spent four weeks at No. 1. "Working against AIDS, especially after years of raising money for work on many blood-related diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, seemed the right thing to do," Warwick told the Washington Post in 1988, an age when AIDS was about as controversial as COVID is currently in the US. "You have to be granite not to want to help people with AIDS, because the devastation that it causes is so painful to see. I was so hurt to see my friend die with such agony." In 1985, she was featured on the all-star single "We Are the World," written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson as a charity single to benefit famine-stricken African countries. Harry Belafonte spearheaded the project, which was produced by Rashida Jones’ dad, Quincy. It was sung by the Jacksons (all of ‘em. Girls and boys.), the Pointer Sisters, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Dan Aykroyd (Hey, why not?), Tina Turner, Lindsey Buckingham of the rolling cranberry juice soundtrack band sensation Fleetwood Mac, Al Jarreau (he won big at the ’82 Grammys and sang the theme for “Moonlighting”), Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Sheila E, Hall & Oates, "Baby, Come to Me” hitmaker James Ingram, Waylon Jennings, Kim Carnes who’s known for the hit “Bette Davis Eyes”, Huey Lewis and the News, Kenny Loggins, Bette Midler, L.T.D’s Jeffrey Osborne, Journey frontman Steve Perry, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats who had a hit in 1979 with “I Don’t Like Mondays” before Geldof founded the British supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia and organized the charity super-concert Live Aid, which you all saw in “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Phew. That's one of the longest photo captions we've ever cobbled together. Worth it.
...She Says No
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“To the person who tweeted at Ms. Warwick asking for the PS5... She says no.
- DW Team”
This message was issued on December 2 and is notable for three things:
1. The composition’s brutalist sense of poetry inspires you to embroider it on a wall hanging;
2. Hilarious; and
3. It’s attributed to ‘DW Team’, Dionne Warwick’s social media team. Yes. They sign their tweets. As if you couldn’t tell their bland but helpful promo messages apart from Queen Warwick’s missives that send offensive tweeters to their rooms or declare them to be grounded. It may have taken her a while to learn how to block, but this ma’am speaks memes like it’s her native tongue. This pic is Dionne Warwick and Chef Jose Andres ringing the closing bell at the NYSE last December before her Christmas performance which was live and in front of a crowd of people and so very, very 2019 in that way.
Foolishness
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“Did you know that the artist can see the names of the playlists you’re adding their songs to on Spotify?” This Warwick tweet was a revelation to her followers. We had never considered artists’ access to this info. Nor had we necessarily imagined Dionne Warwick combing over the data and tweeting out some of the more random and racy playlists on which her work appears. It inspired her followers to create increasingly bananas playlist names and add Warwick songs to them, and with increased Warwick streaming of any kind, the world becomes a better place. It's getting better all the time — next year, she's thinking of taking over her Instagram!

The New ‘Queen of Twitter’ Turns 80: Dionne Warwick’s Life in Pictures

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