Dionne Warwick returns for Big Dome show

MANILA, Philippines - Dionne Warwick, one of the best-selling singers of all time with such hits as Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose?, I Say A Little Prayer and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, is coming to the country for another major tour that will culminate in a grand concert on July 23 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

The three-night concert series, dubbed Dionne Warwick Philippine Tour 2013, will open with a dinner-show at the Manila Hotel Tent on July 20, to be followed by another concert at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City on July 21 before the grand finale at the Big Dome.

Sharing the spotlight with Dionne is Tavares, the popular American soul group of the ’70s and ’80s, which will be the show’s front act.

Ovation Productions is bringing back the singing superstar to the concert scene three years after her 2010 tour, during which she charmed the sold-out audiences at the Araneta Coliseum and the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino.

One of biggest acts of the ’60s and ’70s, Dionne attained international recognition for her sweet and rich vocals that propelled her songs to the top of the charts.

She started out as a member of The Gospelaires, with her sister, Dee Dee, and her aunt, Cissy, in her hometown of New Jersey, until her excellent and elegant singing attracted the attention of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who subsequently placed her as a solo artist with the Sceptre record label.

Her debut single, Don’t Make Me Over, released in 1962, became a hit the following year, while her fourth single, Anyone Who Had A Heart (1963), became her first Top 10 pop hit, followed by Walk On By (1964), her first No. 1 R&B hit and a million-dollar seller.

Dionne continued to enjoy immense success from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s with a string of Gold-selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles, including Message To Michael, Here Where There Is Love (which featured the hit single, Alfie), Trains And Boats And Planes and I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.

In 1967, she earned her first RIAA Gold single for US sales of over one million copies for the single, I Say A Little Prayer, while her trademark tune, Do You Know The Way To San Jose?, became an international million-dollar seller, a Top 10 hit in several countries outside the US and won for Dionne the first of several Grammys.

Other hits included (“There’s”) Always Something There To Remind You, This Girl’s In Love With You, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Make It Easy On Yourself.

After an absence of several years from the charts, she made a triumphant return in 1979 with the ballad, I’ll Never Love This Way Again.

In 1982, Dionne collaborated with Johnny Mathis on Friends Or Lovers and Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees on Heartbreaker, which became another big international hit and landed her on the Top 10 of Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since 1979.

She made history in 1985 when she performed in the Grammy-winning charity song, We Are The World, along with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Ray Charles. The song became the year’s biggest hit, spending weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 before being certified four times Platinum in the US alone.

In the same year, she also scored one of her biggest hits with That’s What Friends Are For, an AIDS benefit single that also featured Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight. The song, penned by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, became a triple No. 1 on R&B, Adult Contemporary and four weeks at the top on Billboard Hot 100.

The ’90s saw Dionne getting reunited with Burt and Hal David with the album, Friends Can Be Lovers, which contained Sunny Weather Lover, the first song produced by the famous songwriting duo 20 years since they went separate ways in the early ’70s.

In 2012, Dionne celebrated her 50th year in music with the album, Now, which featured most of the songs written by Burt and Hal. She also marked the milestone with the distinction of being one of the best-selling singers of all time and ranked among the 40 biggest hitmakers of the entire rock era (1955 to 2012) based on Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles charts.

As of April, 2013, she is tied for third position with Madonna and behind only Aretha Franklin and Taylor Swift as the most-charted female vocalists of all time.

(Dionne Warwick Philippine Tour 2013 is presented by Ovation Productions in association with RJ 100.3 FM, etc, Solar News Channel, 2nd Avenue, Diva Universal, Jack TV and Seda Abreeza [Davao City]. It is supported by The STAR, Manila Bulletin, BusinessWorld, 90.7 Love Radio, Yes! FM 101.1, 96.3 Easy Rock, dwBR 104.3, Crossover 105.1, OptimaSignsolutions and ABS-CBN. Ticket prices are P5,280, P4,755, P3,700, P2,640, P1,585 and P740. For details, call 911-5555 or log on to www.ticketnet.com. For ticket prices and info on the other venues, call Manila Hotel Tent at 527-0011/9115615 and SMX Convention Center Davao City at 0932-6376185 or 0917-7007088.)