Heartbreaker... Dionne’s €8m in debt
DIONNE Warwick, one of the most popular and successful singers of the Sixties and Seventies, has filed for personal bankruptcy with debts of around €8million.
The Grammy award-winning star, who has sold more than 100million records, lists assets of some €15,000 in her bankruptcy petition.
She owes the seven-figure sum to the US taxman and to the state of California for property and personal taxes.
A spokesman for the 72-yearold singer, whose hits include Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose and That’s What Friends Are For, blamed a former business manager for mishandling her finances in the Eighties and Nineties.
Miss Warwick was a cousin of Whitney Houston, who died in February last year from accidental drowning, with heart disease and years of cocaine abuse also playing a role.
Miss Warwick remains one of the most popular female vocalists of all time. She had 56 top selling singles between 1962 and 2010 and is second only to Aretha Franklin with the highest number of entries on the Billboard chart.
Her lawyer, Daniel Stolz, said: ‘Miss Warwick had a business manager who mismanaged her affairs. Before she knew it, she owed a gazillion dollars in taxes. She’s actually paid more than the face amount of the taxes, but with all of the crazy interest and penalties that they add, the number kept mushrooming – even though she paid off the amount that she owed in terms of the actual taxes.
‘We’ve found that we had no other resort other than to file bankruptcy.’
During the Eighties and Nineties, Miss Warwick was earning around €2million a year from her business partnerships.
While royalties from records and tours added a further €1million a year, she was also known for her lavish spending.