Dionne Warwick

Soul, R&B, and pop music's most sophisticated voice.

Founded

December 12, 1940 in City of Orange, New Jersey

Full Name

Marie Dionne Warrick

Date of Birth

December 12, 1940 in City of Orange, New Jersey

Still Alive

Date of Death

Influenced By

Gospel, Jazz, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughn

Later Influenced

Dusty Springfield, Luther Vandross, Philip Bailey, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé

Dionne Warwaick in London.

About The artist

It is easier to define Dionne Warwick by what she isn't rather than what she is. Although she grew up singing in church, she is not a gospel singer. Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are clear influences, but she is not a jazz singer. R&B is also part of her background, but she is not really a soul singer, either, at least not in the sense that Aretha Franklin is. Sophisticated is a word often used to describe her musical approach and the music she sings, but she is not a singer of standards such as Lena Horne or Nancy Wilson. She is a pop singer of a sort who probably could only have emerged out of the Brill Building environment of post-Elvis Presley, pre-Beatles urban pop in the early '60s.

William Ruhlmann for Allmusic.com