Dionne Warwick Live at Vicar St, May 24 2012

Words by Vanessa Monaghan

There aren’t too many artists who can justify being called a living legend. With fifty years in the business, five Grammy awards and fifty six singles in the Billboard charts between 1962 and 1998, Dionne Warwick can more than justify the status.

The evening started with Maria Tecce, who looked stunning walking to the stage in a long black ball dress. She opened with her set with an a cappella version of ‘God Bless the Child’ and mesmorised with her voice and then with her wit and charm. Ms. Tecce played tracks from her forthcoming album and revealed she had also written material for it, which was a first for her. ‘Go Back Home’ has a distinct folk blues vibe to it while ‘My Dearest Dear’ has a traditional American country feel.

Tecce’s voice is amazing and paced her set really well but it was her humour and wit that took the audience the extra step into the palm of her hand, picking a member of the audience and asking ‘Do you belong to her?’ and teasingly keeping it up without going overboard. The set ended with ‘Llorandro‘, the Spanish version of Roy Oribson’s ‘Cryin’, and a jazzy rendition of The Pointer Sisters – ‘Slow Hands’. An enjoyable set and a great introduction to the artist.

The audience didn’t have to wait long for Dionne Warwick to come on stage, ably backed by a five piece band. Before she starts singing Ms. Warwick speaks to the audience telling them to sing and ‘clap, keep a groove if the spirits should move you’. She also said it was fine with her if ‘you want to get up and let it all hang loose.’ The audience didn’t need any more encouragement. From the opening notes of ‘Walk on By’, they took lead vocals. Just as well too, on this track as Ms Warwick didn’t seem to be able to hit all the notes and rather was prompting the audience with the lyrics.

The hits kept coming though ‘Anyone who had a heart’ and ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ was given an upbeat bossa nova vibe. The hot balmy summer evening seemed to be having an effect on the soul singer, who it has to be remembered is in her seventy second year, as she wiped her forehead. Throughout the set though, the singers voice got stronger and stronger, hitting notes at the end, that would not have been possible at the start.

Ms. Warwick chats to the crowd, acknowledging this is a big year for her, fifty years in music. The audience show their appreciation cheering loudly. She then tells us that she has a new album coming out later in the year and she has reworked some of her old hits, including ‘Say A Little Prayer’. This too gets a bossa nova feel and Ms Warwick dances teasing the crowd, which they are loving. This is followed by ‘What’s it all about, Alfie?‘, going on the audience reaction and age range, they may remember this first time round. But it’s the Bee Gees penned ‘Heartbreaker’, that gets the first standing ovation of the night.

Ms Warwick’s style seems to be moving towards South American rhythms and it cannot be ignored. She shows still has quite a sense of humour as she chats to the audience, explaining that with these Brazilian rhythms everyone will be ‘compelled to move something, if you don’t move something, then you’re dead.’ With each song, Ms Warwick’s voice gets stronger shows what a force she is.

So many of the songs in this set are recognizable, even the casual fan cannot deny the influence Ms. Warwick and her work with Burt Bacharach has had on the music industry. As she starts ‘What the World Needs Now is Love’, the whole audience are singing along in unison. Ms Warwick bows graciously accepting an standing ovation saying ‘This is what the evening has been all about’. The opening notes of ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ singing along, in admiration of the talent before us. The audience are as loud as the band on stage.

A very chilled out, enjoyable show, the further into the night we got, the stronger Ms Warwick’s voice got, an amazing talent.