60 years of classics and a timeless talent: Dionne Warwick takes the stage
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20.01.2025

60 years of classics and a timeless talent: Dionne Warwick takes the stage

Dionne Warwick
Photo: Kate Arnott
Words by Bryget Chrisfield

The millisecond Dionne Warwick appears on stage – sporting a glamorous, sparkly suit – she’s greeted by cheers, wild applause and even a standing ovation from some; even before she sings a single note!

As her brilliant backing band – pianist/Musical Director Andre Chez Lewis (who plays Bob Dylan’s pianist/organist, Paul Griffin, in the current Timothée Chalamet-starring biopic, A Complete Unknown), bassist Danny DeMorales, drummer Jeffrey Lewis and percussionist Renato Brasa – riff, Dionne Warwick welcomes her audience, encouraging us to sing along and “have a good time” while taking a stroll alongside her down memory lane. 

Warwick then sings, “If you see me walking down the street and I start to cry, each time we meet,” before coaxing audience participation: “Do what? “WALK ON BY!” – we ardently take the bait.  

Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.

Anyone Who Had A Heart, You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart), I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Message To Michael, This Girl’s In Love With You – the hits just keep on coming. As Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s preferred vocalist, Warwick’s songbook is sacred and all on stage pour their hearts into every musical nuance.

Warwick beams up there, glowing from within. At the age of 84, she’s still got it – even though she does ham it up at times and exaggeratedly psychs herself up to hit the high note that closes out their jazzy version of I Say A Little Prayer

She mostly performs seated on a stool in front of the piano, regularly facing the choir seats that bookend the stage so these punters don’t feel left out – every single seat of this sold-out Hamer Hall show is filled.

Do You Know The Way To San Jose? inspires lots of in-chair dancing, with the awesome backing players all given a chance to show off their musical chops with individual solos during this one.  

Although Warwick’s between-song banter is a delight, at times her words are drowned out by the musical accompaniment her band supplies while she speaks on.

While introducing If I Want To, she recounts a hilarious exchange from a previous show. Warwick had claimed that this Bacharach-penned song was a recent discovery to her, but was interrupted by a front-row fan who issued a correction since she owned a copy of Warwick’s 1998 record, Dionne Sings Dionne, on which this song appears. 

Warwick then tells us that when she was touring alongside her dear friend Johnny Mathis, she heard him performing a beautiful song – from her dressing room – which she asked him to identify post-performance.

Mathis revealed Hal David actually wrote the lyrics for this song, which is called 99 Miles From LA, and Warwick teased, “That’s impossible… Everybody knows that when Bacharach and David wrote a song, I had to be the first to get it.” So, of course, Warwick has since recorded her own version of 99 Miles From LA, which she shares with us tonight.  

Our enthusiastic mass singalong to What The World Needs Now Is Love (“…No not just for some, but for everyone…”) is a powerful communal prayer. At first, we bungle Warwick’s request to sing the first line of this song’s chorus three times in a row.

Shaking her head, she good-naturedly chastises us. Then a punter goes rogue, standing up to sing the line solo. Other audience members start yelling things out and then Warwick gets a little sassy: “We’re gonna play a little game here, and the game is whoever has the microphone does the talking.”

We do miss Stevie Wonder’s harmonica part, but the closing That’s What Friends Are For – which was released in 1985 as a charity single and raised millions of dollars for AIDS research – is still legendary, as anticipated. 

What a time! We feel privileged to have been in the presence of greatness and are all upstanding, celebrating Warwick’s outstanding musical contributions across her career, which spans 60 years. 

Those fortunate enough to witness this true icon and consummate entertainer – who also just so happens to be the late, great Whitney Houston’s first cousin – One Last Time, leave with giant smiles on their dials. Warwick is all class, with a cheeky glint in her eye. 

To keep up with Dionne Warwick, head here.