Legendary singer Dionne Warwick has filed a countersuit against Artists Rights Enforcement Corp., accusing the firm of quietly taking millions of dollars from her music royalties over more than two decades.
The lawsuit centers on Warwick’s claim that the company collected 50 percent of royalties tied to some of her most iconic recordings for 23 years.
According to court filings, the dispute traces back to an agreement Warwick signed with the firm in 2001. The singer says she signed a one-page contract without legal representation, believing the deal was limited to helping recover unpaid royalties connected to a specific dispute. Instead, her legal team claims the company began collecting half of the revenue tied to a large portion of her earlier catalog.
Warwick’s complaint states that the arrangement allegedly allowed the company to collect royalties connected to songs recorded between 1962 and 2001. That catalog includes some of her best-known hits, such as “Walk On By” and I Say a Little Prayer,” songs that helped define her decades-long career.
The lawsuit further claims that the company did not provide proper accounting records detailing how the royalties were collected and distributed. Warwick’s legal team also alleges that the firm may have interfered with a potential business deal she was negotiating to sell a portion of her music rights.
The countersuit comes after a separate legal action filed by the company in 2025. In that case, the firm claimed Warwick owed them money related to their efforts to recover royalties tied to her catalog. The dispute included profits associated with the sampling of “Walk On By” in the song Paint the Town Red by Doja Cat.
In the new filing, Warwick’s attorneys argue that the firm portrayed itself as a company dedicated to helping artists recover unpaid royalties while allegedly profiting heavily from her work. The lawsuit describes the company as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” alleging that the agreement ultimately allowed the firm to benefit from her catalog for decades.
The case now places Warwick, one of the most recognizable voices in American music, at the center of a legal battle over royalties connected to a career that spans generations of listeners and some of the most enduring songs in pop and soul history.
