Dionne Warwick
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, QLD
January 14th, 2025
Two shows into her ‘One Last Time’ tour, Dionne Warwick has already traversed a continent. She began the tour in Perth and tonight she’s playing to a sold-out house in Brisbane.
Warwick has a voice that has sold more than a few million records. Warwick started out as a solo artist in 1962 when she cut a Burt Bacharach and Hal David tune, “Don’t Make Me Over”. It was Warwick who provided the title. She’d earlier recorded a demo for the songwriters for “Make It Easy on Yourself” thinking it’d be her first release, but instead they gave it to Jerry Butler.
“Don’t Make Me Over” was the phrase she barked at Bacharach and David when she got the news. And a singer-songwriter marriage was born. Warwick is a giant among the great female singers of the 1960’s. In 2025 her songs still stream north of 3.5 million plays per month.
Now she’s 84 and about to wrap up her time on the road as a touring artist. As the lights dim, a four-piece band in black tie take their respective places on piano, bass, drums and percussion.
Tall and straight, Warwick emerges from the wings and walks slowly towards centre stage as the band pick up the quiet groove of “Walk on By”. Warwick takes a seat and addresses the crowd, letting them know that we’re all here to have a good time. Formalities out of the way, she then eases into one of the greatest opening lines in pop:
“If you see me walking down the street / And I start to cry / Each time we meet / Walk on by / Walk on by.”
And so it goes. For 30 minutes, Warwick plays a long run of Bacharach and David classics. The versions are truncated. Her voice isn’t what it was, but it’s moving and heartfelt and the room continually responds with applause.
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Dionne delivers pop masterpiece after pop masterpiece, including “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”, and “This Girls in Love With You”. She eventually explains that she’ll be re-inventing a few songs and playing a few surprises. Next comes a bossa nova “I Say a Little Prayer”, followed by “Alfie” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”.
Breaking from the Bacharach and David songbook, she sings the Richard Kerr and Will Jennings-penned “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and the Albert Hammond/Hal David number “99 Miles From LA”. The latter is preceded with an anecdote about hearing her support act playing the song one night and the singer simply knew it had to be a Hal David lyric. She was right.
Now, standing by the piano, Warwick’s voice gained more power as the night went on. “What the World Needs Now”, with its fumbled crowd singalong that caused Warwick to interject and offer a tutorial, is a thing of beauty.
Proceedings come to a close with a heartfelt “That’s What Friends Are For”. Tonight is a opportunity to not only celebrate the artistry of one of the finest singers of the last century, but to hear her deliver a songbook that she contributed so much to making a part of the pop culture fabric.
The extended standing ovation as Warwick departs this particular stage for the final time is well deserved.
