Dionne Warwick’s Beyonce/Icon Comments Spark Controversy

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Dionne Warwick is an absolute legend and one of the first black women singers who paved the way for legends like Beyonce to flourish. However, her recent comments on what makes someone iconic has rubbed the Beyhive the wrong way and an uncivil war has erupted on these here internets.

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During an interview with ESSENCE, Warwick had this to say:

“It’s wonderful to see how she’s been able to create what and who she wanted to be and who she is…very proud of that, I really am. Now, sustaining and becoming a big icon that Gladys Knight, or Patti LaBelle, or Johnny Mathis, or Frank Sinatra, or Sammy Davis Jr. is? I doubt that, I really do. And I love her to death and can appreciate her talent. But that iconic status that I just mentioned, those four names? [She has] a long read [ahead].”

This, of course, was taken as shade because she didn’t bow down and kiss Bey’s ring. However, she took to Twitter to clarify in a now-deleted tweet that read:

“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.”

It didn’t matter as a generational war had erupted. BeyHive Twitter was trying to come for Dionne while Auntie Twitter has her back and is re-dragging the Hive. See the tweets defending Warwick below…

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