Latest news with #blackfemaleopsinger

Wall Street Journal

‘Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971': Dionne Warwick at Pop's Pinnacle

Last year, when Dionne Warwick was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo offered this salute: 'I think it would be very safe to say that I'm standing on Dionne's shoulders, because she really did create a path that didn't exist—and ran down it!' It also would be safe to say that what Ms. Erivo meant is that until the arrival of Dionne Warwick, there was virtually no such thing as a black female pop singer. Black women were classified as singers of jazz or the blues or R&B, but no one dominated the mainstream charts the way Ms. Warwick did throughout the 1960s. She opened the way for everyone who has come since, from Aretha Franklin to Ms. Warwick's cousin Whitney Houston to Beyoncé.