1979 · Behind the Songs
Déjà vu is just the heart recognizing what it already knows.
The second single from Dionne was written by Isaac Hayes and Adrienne Anderson, and it gave Warwick something she had rarely been offered: a slow-burning R&B groove to wrap her precision around. The lyric plays with the uncanny feeling of having lived a love before, and Warwick sings it like a woman examining a beautiful memory from every angle.
It won her the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, completing a remarkable double with its predecessor — pop and R&B Grammys from the same album sessions. The track’s quiet confidence is its power: no fireworks, just a master singer letting a great song do its slow work. Déjà vu, the song suggests, is just the heart recognizing what it already knows.