Aretha Blasts Dionne Warwick but She Declines to Fire Back
Channel: BuzzVideo yuotube
Date: 2017-04-26

Aretha Franklin is accusing fellow legend Dionne Warwick of a lie, 5 years after the alleged offense.

| April 25, 2017, at 4:06 p.m.

FILE - In this combination photo, singer Dionne Warwick arrives at the 56th annual GRAMMY Awards on Jan. 26, 2014, in Los Angeles, left, and Aretha Franklin attends the 39th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 4, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Franklin is accusing Warwick of making up a story that she was Whitney Houston’s godmother. At Houston's funeral, Warwick told funeral-goers that Franklin was present and introduced her, but then realized she wasn’t in attendance. Warwick said, "“She loves Whitney as if she were born to her. She is her godmother.” Franklin said she was suffering from swollen feet and had to skip the funeral. She felt the comment was damaging to her and planned to address it at a later date. (Photo by Jordan Strauss, left, Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

At the time, Franklin said she was suffering from swollen feet and had to skip the funeral so she could perform later that night at Radio City Music Hall in New York, which she said she was contractually obligated to do.

Though Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's mother, said in the days afterward that Franklin wasn't Houston's godmother (it was Darlene Love), Franklin felt the comment was damaging to her and planned to address it at a later date.

"There's been so much going on around her (Houston), around the service, around the drugs, around her and Bobby (Brown) supposed to be fighting, I didn't want to add anything to that and I didn't want to be a part of that," she said.

Five years later, Franklin feels that time is now.

While the story that Houston was Franklin's goddaughter has been part of her story for decades, Franklin said she first met Houston when Houston was a child — and she was far too busy to be anyone's godmother.

Franklin saw Warwick last week at the Tribeca Film Festival's premiere of mentor Clive Davis' documentary, "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives," and she also performed. Franklin said Warwick tried to talk to her backstage.

"She said, 'Give me a hug.' I said, 'Oh hell no. You couldn't be serious,'" Franklin said.

When asked if she wanted an apology from Warwick, she said: "I don't care about her apology, at this point it isn't about an apology, it's about libel."

She added: "We've never been friends and I don't think that Dionne has ever liked me."

Franklin once covered Warwick's hit "Walk on By."

When asked for comment, Warwick's representative Angelo Ellerbee said: "She will not dignify a response to the statement made by Aretha Franklin."