Dionne Warwick, best known for hits such as “Walk On By” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” caused some fans to believe that she was about to quit when she launched her “She’s Back One Last Time” in 2022. However, she insisted that she has no plans to quit for good.
“No. That should never have been the title of that tour. What it meant was it’s the last time that I am going to be on the road as much. Everybody kept saying, ‘You’re not retiring, are you?’ Not yet,” Warwick, 83, explained.
“That will happen when I am not able to reach the bar that I set for myself. That’s when I take my little ballet slippers and hang them up and … walk on by!” she said.
As proof that she’s not ready to hang it up, the five-time Grammy winner is gearing up to release new music alongside legendary soul and funk band, Earth, Wind & Fire, who she described as her “all-time favorite group” during an interview with US Weekly published on Aug. 1.
“I have children; I have grandbabies — and I don’t want [those] words getting into their ears.”
Aside from her own music, Warwick has been outspoken about the overtly sexual lyrics in others’. In her belief, music should not be too sexual or use curse words and is “really surprised” that artists are allowed to release such songs. She said she is pleased that, after speaking to rappers like Snoop Dogg, that she has made a difference.
“I think it’s horrible, first of all, that the FCC allows it. I am really surprised. I have children; I have grandbabies — and I don’t want [those] words getting into their ears,” Warwick recalled. “We talked for quite a while. I met with quite a few of them and just let them know, ‘Not only are you gonna grow up but your ears are, too, and eventually your children’s ears are gonna hear this. Is that really what you [want] them to listen to?”
“They heard me and decided, ‘I guess I should give it some thought here before I say a terrible word. Maybe there’s another word I can use,’” Warwick said. “And I told them, ‘Just stop and think before you speak.’ And that’s what happened. They calmed down so very much after I had those meetings with them. So, they began to realize maybe she knows what she’s talking about.”
Warwick also told Us Weekly that younger generations of artists “feel that they invented show business”.
“It’s a youth-oriented industry today – which doesn’t surprise me because when I was coming through, it was a youth-oriented industry,” she stated. “I find it quite interesting that talent is not the precedence. It’s how little you can wear, how much you can shake your body, how different you have chosen to look. It’s another industry altogether.”
Last year, the “Do You Know the Way” to San Jose hitmaker learned that her 1963 hit “Walk on By” had been sampled by rapper Doja Cat on her 2023 track Paint The Town Red.
“I said, ‘Doja who?’” Warwick told the outlet with a laugh. “I don’t listen to radio, because there’s nothing on that I want to hear.”
Warwick is a six-time Grammy Award-winning music legend who has earned more than 75 charted hit songs and sold over 100 million records. After Aretha Franklin, she is the second most charted vocalist of the 20th century.
The East Orange, New Jersey native’s early exposure to music came through church choirs and local performances. She was discovered by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1961, and went on to record 18 consecutive Top 100 singles (“Don’t Make Me Over,” Walk on By,” “Say a Little Prayer,” “A House is Not a Home,” “Alfie,” “Heartbreaker,” “Déjà Vu,” among countless others).