(Source: Cindy Ord/Getty Images North America)
*Dionne Warwick says she’s not throwing shade by proclaiming that Beyonce does not yet have a body of work to be considered among the icons of music.
The five-time Grammy-winning soul singer has returned with a new album, titled “She’s Back,” and in an exclusive interview with ESSENCE magazine, Warwick, 78, is asked where today’s music ranks among the classics.
“I don’t know if 10 years from now, anybody can actually sing the songs of our babies today. That’s not, as you guys say, ‘throwing shade,’ it’s looking at it with reality,” she explained.
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What I said is in quotes. What @Essence said is not. It takes a long time to reach and achieve iconic status. That’s not to say that Beyoncé isn’t well on her way. She is a gifted performer. That was a reach from Essence. pic.twitter.com/nWlZcrgdqg
— Dionne Warwick (@_DionneWarwick) May 23, 2019
While Warwick is a fan of Beyonce’s work, she believes the hitmaker still has a long way to go before she earns icon status.
“I love her to death and can appreciate her talent. But that iconic status, it’s a long road [ahead],” Warwick told the magazine.
On Thursday, she also took to Twitter to comment on the article after the Beyhive came for her head: “What I said is in quotes. What @Essence said is not. It takes a long time to reach and achieve iconic status,” she wrote. “That’s not to say that Beyoncé isn’t well on her way. She is a gifted performer. That was a reach from Essence.”
In a recent interview with Pride Source, Warwick confessed: “what is happening in the industry today is so alien to me.”
Adding, “It really is! I’m not a computer geek, so I’m not here all day long sitting at a computer screen. My cell phone, I try to leave it anywhere I can.”
She was also asked her feelings on how Whitney’s legacy has been handled in the years since her death.
“Oh, I don’t know. That’s not for me to discuss or to make an opinion on. And I’m gonna stop you at this point in time because I do not discuss Whitney. She is gone and she will be well remembered as the beautiful person she was,” she said.
