From sublime Swinging 60s classics to destroying trolls online, Dionne Warwick remains top of the pops

When Dionne Warwick encounters something idiotic or unpleasant on social media, the legendary American singer finds it difficult to, in the words of her classic 1964 hit, walk on by. Turning 84 on December 12, she is a dab hand at busting out a witty riposte, devastating put-down, or goofy remark. Whether it’s dissing a troll or trying to steer today’s pop stars away from career suicide, Warwick may not know the way to San Jose but she can deftly navigate the tricky terrain of online communication. “I just heard about Leonard DiCaprio’s 25-year rule,” the self-styled Queen of X posted a couple of years ago. “His loss. You don’t know what you’re missing.” “I hope that (rapper) DaBaby’s mother calls herself DaMama,” she quipped. “This would be a wonderful full circle moment.” Asked why she joined the social media platform in 2012, Warwick simply says: “I thought it was time a grown-up showed up.” Chatting from her home in New Jersey in the lead-up to another Australian tour, the six-time Grammy Award winner explains that “our youngsters” needed a few tips on digital decorum. “Say whatever you want to say but there is a way to say it,” Warwick says. “Make it palatable. And always end it with a smile.” The singer employed a similar stern-but-fair auntie act IRL — sorry, in real life — back in the 1990s to school a posse of chart-topping rappers about their use of misogynistic language. The story goes that Warwick summoned hip-hop superstars Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, plus Death Row Records founder (and convicted felon) Suge Knight, to her home for a dressing-down. In a recently unveiled CNN documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, Snoop revealed the rappers dutifully arrived at the singer’s home before her requested meeting time of 7am. She demanded they call her a “bitch” to her face. “We were the most gangsta as you could be,” Snoop recalls in the film. “But that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I believe we got out-gangstered.” Warwick confirms it’s a “very true story”, but with less confrontation and more mediation. “It was a wonderful meeting,” she continues. “We talked for — oh, my goodness — four or five hours.” While she didn’t know the rappers personally, Warwick knew she didn’t like their profane lyrics. “It was not palatable to my ears, so I wanted to say to them ‘There’s a way to say everything you want to say without cursing or calling people ugly names’. Apparently, they felt that I had a point.” Beyond social media or a private conversation with gangsta rappers in her living room, Warwick is not shy in coming forward. US President Ronald Reagan appointed her an honorary ambassador of health in 1987 for her activism during the HIV/AIDS crisis. She also campaigned to get people out to vote for Kamala Harris during the recent US election. While Warwick describes herself as “definitely a Democrat”, she says she has “had liaisons with both sides of the aisle”. “When you make sense and you have something to say, you can go to anybody,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if they’re Republican or Democrat.” She jokes that she might call Donald Trump to her place for an early morning chat. Unsurprisingly, her online support for Harris earned the usual brickbats from faceless keyboard warriors. One described Warwick as a “washed-up singer”, to which the legend responded: “Washed up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”. In October, she was finally (finally!) inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where she joined Jennifer Hudson in belting out her Barry Manilow-produced 1979 hit I’ll Never Love This Way Again before getting the star-studded audience to join her in a rendition of Walk On By. The latter slice of sublime sophisticated pop was written and produced by songwriting duo, composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, who formed a “triangular marriage” with Warwick in the swinging 60s. “They wrote songs specifically with me in mind,” she says. “Each of us brought something to the table.” Walk on By forms the bedrock of American rapper Doja Cat’s chart-topping 2023 single Paint The Town Red. “It’s wonderful,” Warwick says. “I had no idea who she was. One of my grandchildren explained who Doja Cat was. “It’s a great feeling to know they’re keeping Dionne Warwick alive.” Alive and kicking. Warwick insists her imminent visit Down Under is not a farewell tour, despite being billed as “one last time”. “When I can’t reach the bar that I’ve set for myself, that’s when it will be farewell,” she says. “I love singing. It’s part of my being, my DNA. I grew up with gospel, singing with my mom and my siblings, my cousins. It’s something I grew up knowing, and will always love.” Some of her famous family and friends, notably first cousin Whitney Houston, who died in 2012, failed to avoid the pitfalls of fame. Warwick credits her parents, and famous early career mentors ranging from the Rat Pack to Hollywood icons and jazz-era stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan, with keeping her feet “firmly on terra firma”. “There was no rising into the air, no, none of that. No head so big it couldn’t fit through the door,” she laughs. “I still had to wash dishes when I came home to my mom.” Dionne Warwick plays the Riverside Theatre on January 11.