Dionne Warwick Speaks Out Against Britney Spears’ “13 Years of Bondage” Conservatorship

In the weeks after Britney Spears’ public courtroom appearance addressing her conservatorship, there has been an outpouring of support for the pop icon. Spears’ younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears recently took to Instagram to set the record straight, and yesterday (June 30) the legendary singer/actress Dionne Warwick weighed in on Twitter. 

“I just felt compelled to say just a few words, and I’m not gonna be very long. It’s going to be brief,” Warwick stated in the video. “My heart goes out to Britney Spears. It really does. I feel her pain. How in the world could anyone endure what she has been enduring? Thirteen years of bondage—this is exactly what it is.”

Warwick’s video only lasts two minutes and twenty seconds— exactly how she said it was going to go— but her statements eloquently communicate the outrage that surrounds Spears’ conservatorship status. Specifically commenting on Spears’ courtroom testimony, Warwick does not hold back her condemnation. Warwick decries the system that refuses Spears physical and financial autonomy when Spears remains a high-performing and productive member of society. 

“Do you realize the amount of work this young lady puts in to bring you joy? Remembering all those words to the songs she has to sing, the combination of the dances she has to do, getting up at the crack of dawn to do exercises, getting her body and keeping it in shape to make you feel good. And what is it that we feel? She is not able to have that kind of joy? And feel good to herself? How fair is that?” Warwick questioned.

She then answered her own line of questioning with a powerful call to action. “Bondage is not something 2021 should even recognize. She has the wherewithal [to decide] how she wants to live, where she wants to live, and with whom she wants to live. Give her back her rights. Give her back her life. Set her free.”

As if hearing those statements from one of the most accomplished women in entertainment wasn’t enough, Warwick ends her video by speaking to Spears directly. “Britney, I feel your pain, baby, and I totally agree. Yes. Enough. It is enough. May God continue to bless and smile upon you and give you the wherewithal to continue to fight for your freedom.”