TheWrap awards magazine: The prolific songwriter, who has yet to win, also revealed who she was „happy to lose to“
This story about Diane Warren first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. When she landed a nomination this year for writing the song “Io sì (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead,” Diane Warren extended her own record for Oscar success: She’s now been nominated for songwriting 12 times over five different decades, from 1987 to 2021, albeit without ever winning. “How cool is it that the greatest composers and songwriters on the planet choose my songs to be in the top five, you know?” she said. “It’s a big deal, and I don’t take it for granted for a second.” A pause. “Would I like to win? Yeah, that would be really nice.” Warren gave TheWrap a guided tour to all 12 of her Oscar nominations.1987: “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from “Mannequin” Written with: Albert Hammond Performed by: Starship Lost to: “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing” Warren had a few pop hits before writing this theme for the comedy about a young man (Andrew McCarthy) who falls for a department-store mannequin that comes to life. It became her first No.1 hit. “My first nominated song is basically about a guy who f—s a mannequin. How about that? But he does marry her, so he makes an honest mannequin out of her. I wrote it with my friend Albert Hammond, and the idea was to write a big wedding anthem for the end of the movie. So we went to some department stores, and I left Albert alone with the mannequins… No, just kidding. “But the movie became kind of a guilty pleasure, and the song lived on, too. I wonder how many mannequins have gotten married to it by now.” Also Read: Oscars Song Contenders on ‚Common Thread‘ Through Their Songs: ‚A Need to Be Heard and Seen‘ (Video) 1996: “Because You Loved Me” from “Up Close and Personal” Performed by: Céline Dion Lost to: “You Must Love Me” from “Evita” Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer have a May-December romance in Jon Avnet’s drama set in the world of TV journalism. “At the end of the movie he dies and she’s talking about what he meant to her. And I thought, ‘Let me write a song about somebody who saw something in you that nobody else saw and really lifted you up.’ It was a chance for me to thank my dad, because he really believed in me when I decided to be a songwriter. My mom was like, ‘What are you doing? Can you take your songs to Ralphs and get groceries?’ But my dad was more of a dreamer, and he always believed–he got me a subscription to Billboard and would take me to publishers and encourage me. It’s become a big wedding song for a lot of father-daughter dances, and also a big funeral song. “It was one of the two times I went to the Oscars thinking I was going to win, and I remember being bummed out when I didn’t.” 1997: “How Do I Live” from “Con Air” Performed by: Trisha Yearwood (and LeAnn Rimes) Lost to: “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” The Michael Bay movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer was Warren’s first time working with that team. It was not a smooth experience. “I guess there were a lot of people writing songs for ‘Con Air,’ and I had written ‘How Do I Live.’ I ran into LeAnn Rimes at a restaurant when she was 14 and had just won Best New Artist at the Grammys. I said, ‘Hey, I wrote a song — do you want to hear it and demo it? She loved the song and recorded it and did a big expensive video. And then I played it for Jerry Bruckheimer, and he didn’t like the production. It was too country, I guess, for the movie. But LeAnn’s dad, Wilbur, was like, ‘I’m not changing nothing for them Hollywood people!’ He wouldn’t budge. “So Jerry took the song to Trisha Yearwood and asked me if that was OK. I said, ‘Yeah, as long as LeAnn can put the record out, too.’ He said yeah, but then he suddenly said, ‘No, you have to pull it from LeAnn.’ I couldn’t do that, and everybody kind of hated me. Jerry Bruckheimer hated me and Trisha hated me and the LeAnn record wasn’t even going to come out. “I called Curb Records and talked them into putting it out, and the two records came out at exactly the same time. And people stopped hating me because they both became hits. Trisha had a No.1 country record and won a Grammy, and LeAnn’s was the biggest record ever by a female artist. Jerry Bruckheimer told me, ‘I’m never going to work with you again.’ And then he worked with me again the next year.” Also Read: Jerry Bruckheimer’s Longtime Paramount Deal Will Not Be Renewed 1998: “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from ‘Armageddon’ Performed by: Aerosmith Lost to: “When You Believe” from ‘The Prince of Egypt’ Bruckheimer and Bay turned to Warren once again for the love theme to a global-disaster epic starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, whose rock-star dad, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, handled the vocals.
