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As far as A-list, top-tier music icons go, Dionne Warwick is sitting pretty at the top of the pack. For more than 50 years, the legend has enchanted global audiences on stage and has picked up more than a handful of awards and accolades throughout the decades.
As she heads to Jamaica to perform at Plantation Cove, St Ann, on Saturday, March 29, at a concert titled Timeless, The Sunday Gleaner got up close with the music icon, and it turns out that her love for Jamaica is deep-rooted. Warwick has enjoyed some very special moments in Jamaica.
“My first time setting foot on the island of Jamaica was in the 1960s for my honeymoon,” Warwick reminisced. “Those early years were filled with happiness and so much fun. I was living in New Jersey, and my new husband and I headed down to Jamaica to a beach resort, where we enjoyed a wonderful stay.”
The Hollywood Walk of Fame star recipient could not immediately recall the name of the resort, but her idyllic flashback for that time period makes the then star-studded Frenchman’s Cove near Port Antonio a likely contender.
“This was the start of a very happy and productive relationship with Jamaica, and I have returned several times to perform, always being showered with so much love from the Jamaican people,” she testified.
While Jamaica was preparing for Independence celebrations in 1962, Warwick was kicking off her career with the release that year of Don’t Make Me Over. That first Burt Bacharach-Hal David smash was the start of a barrage of hits that followed, and so loved were her songs in Jamaica that many of her iconic 1960s classics were covered by reggae artistes such as John Holt, Dennis Brown, Dawn Penn, Hortense Ellis, and others.
She has fond memories of Reggae King Bob Marley.
“Over the years I became very close to Bob Marley, his family, and his children,” Warwick revealed. “Bob was an absolute delight. I loved him. He treated me with nothing but kindness, and I have only very fond memories of him.”
In 2014, Warwick partnered with Bob’s son Ziggy Marley to voice a reggae version of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. It was produced by Warwick’s son Nomad who is himself a big lover of reggae.
All indications are that March 29 will be something special, when Queen of Reggae, Marcia Griffiths; Jamaica’s First Lady of Jazz, Myrna Hague, and the man from August Town, Duane Stephenson, join Warwick on stage at Plantation Cove.
Creative Director for Coveside Concerts Vonni Koromanti noted that “Jamaicans from all walks of life are looking forward to Dionne”.
“There’s the element of nostalgia ... to relive those moments when Dionne’s voice was the backdrop to our love stories, to woman empowerment and to helping humanity. Then there’s the younger, curious audience that came to know her as the clap-back queen on Twitter ... which eventually led them to the discovery of her music,” Koromanti told The Sunday Gleaner.
She added: “Timeless is Dionne Warwick for one [of the] last times in Jamaica. Strong off her New Zealand tour, she returns to our shores to offer a Coveside performance rooted in elegance and mastery. Her catalogue, stagecraft, and vocal proficiency throughout the decades make her Coveside’s leading lady for Timeless. Dionne is the soundtrack of our lives from Don’t Make Me Over in 1962 when Independent Jamaica was coming into being to her recent presence in [the] social media sphere – she appeals to diverse audiences. We look forward to March 29 at Plantation Cove when we will create magical musical memories.”
An enthusiastic Warwick put the icing on the cake: “This will be a fun-filled musical evening with a delicious offering of familiar favourites as well as a few new songs. It will be one unforgettable evening. “
DAZZLING CAREER
The New Jersey-born legend has broken every imaginable barrier and scaled every possible hurdle in the music industry. With a dazzling career that has spanned more than five decades, Warwick has won five Grammys, charted more than 60 hit songs and released close to 20 best-selling albums. And she has sold more than 100 million records, a rare accomplishment in any era.
Along her journey, she has collaborated with some of the best talents in the business, including the Spinners, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross, Jeffrey Osbourne, and Kashif, and others of more recent vintage – Taylor Swift, Chance the Rapper, and The Weeknd. She has travelled the world, performing for monarchs, presidents, emperors, prime ministers, sultans, chiefs, and oil sheikhs.
Warwick’s discography reads like a Hot 100 national chart: Walk On By, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Message to Michael, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Do You Know The Way to San Jose, Say A Little Prayer, Then Came You, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, I’ll Never Love This Way Again, Déjà Vu and the list goes on and on.
Warwick started her professional career doing backup sessions in New York City, and after releasing her first solo recordings, her career took on a rapid upward spiral, and she has never looked back. Opportunities poured in abundantly, not just for recording albums and touring, but for many other related areas of entertainment, including television, film, and advertising.
She has won more music and entertainment awards over the decades than days in a year. Yet beyond her life of music, Warwick has still found time to pursue and support a raft of humanitarian plights - from famine to disease to lack of healthcare to homelessness. We Are The World/USA for Africa was once such a project to alleviate hunger, and the #1 hit That’s What Friends Are For, with Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, was America’s first recording to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS.
English (US) ·