Dionne's long-running love affair with Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - For almost 30 years now, Dionne Warwick has been carrying on a love affair with the Filipinos. Now that she’s back for the nth time for the concert A Memorable Evening with Dionne tonight at 8 at the Big Dome, the affair shows every sign of growing even stronger.

It doesn’t matter that she comes at time when Metro Manila is reeling from a crisis such as it has never seen before.

“I’m crazy about the Philippines,” Dionne, fresh from her long-haul trip from New Jersey, told the press yesterday.

Her only prayer for Filipinos is for them to “get some relief, as soon as possible.”

For her part, Dionne hopes her music — the kind we learned to love over the past 40 years, will have a positive effect on the typhoon victims and their families.

“Music is a very, very healing instrument,” she notes. “To be able to give music is some kind of service. I hope it will take their (the audience’s) mind off the devastation for at least one-and-a-half hours (the duration of her show).

Dionne says she doesn’t let problems depress her. The 68-year-old singer herself has been involved in various controversies over her working contract with fellow artist Burt Bacharach, but she ended up weathering the storm.

Today, she owns the rights to all of her songs and has put up a string of business concerns including a skin care line, her own fragrance brand and an interior design company.

“I’m not doing this (performing) for the rest of my life,” she explains. “I have a lot of other interests to explore.”

Those other interests, however, are not enough to keep her from doing her first love: Singing. Dionne is still very active in her craft, doing as much as 200 shows a year by her own estimate.

Her sons have advised her to slow down. But their mother’s stock answer is a strong, “No way!”

She may keep things “to a minimum” in three years’ time, but right now Dionne still has what it takes to tour the world and bring her music everywhere.

Her Manila show will feature all the songs Filipinos have learned to cherish through the years, like the classic hits Say A Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, Don’t Make Me Over, Walk on By, Promises, Promises, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Make It Easy on Yourself, Alfie, Always Something There to Remind Me, You’ll Never Get to Heaven (Of You Break My Heart), A House is Not a Home, I’ll Never Love This Way Again, Déjà Vu and others.

Four years after she last performed in Manila, Dionne remains upbeat about her coming concert, saying, “I’ve always found it easy to come back here. The Filipinos have been very, very kind to me. They’re a very receptive audience.”

Another thing she likes about her visits to the country is the fact that she finds interesting items during her shopping sprees here.

“I bought this wonderful chair which is probably the most gorgeous piece of art I’ve ever seen,” she recalls.

But it seems Dionne will have no time to go shopping after her show. She flies to Hong Kong right after her Big Dome concert for another show before she returns to the US.

A Memorable Evening with Dionne is produced by H21 Events and SEMax International Philippines, Inc. in cooperation with ALV Events International.