film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

DianeWarren2022.jpeg

How Diane Warren Lost the Oscar for Best Song 14 Times.

By Alberto Cox Délano | Film | March 9, 2023 |

By Alberto Cox Délano | Film | March 9, 2023 |


DianeWarren2022.jpeg

Here’s a lukewarm take for you: The Best Original Song category at the Oscars is, by far, its weakest. First awarded during the 7th ceremony, it has become almost like the Grammys’ Embassy within the Academy, representing the former’s even more terrible taste.

Ever since musicals stopped being regular features of the industry, the nominees and winners have been a cavalcade of schmaltz, sentimentality, over-production, vocal athletics, anvilicious lyrics and titles… basically, they were doing Oscar-bait before it was a thing. If I had a YouTube Channel, a partner and a Patreon, I would love to cover every single winner and nominee. But let’s focus on one of the biggest anomalies in the Awards’ History: How come Diane Warren has received fourteen nominations in this category, without ever, ever winning? (As of writing this, she is in her 14th nomination, but it’s almost certain she will lose again).

Warren might be one of the few behind-the-scenes names in the music industry known to music nerds and normies alike. Her credits (solo or in collaboration) include “Un-Break My Heart”, “If I Could Turn Back Time”, “Rhythm of the Night” (the one by DeBarge), and dozens of songs for Michael Bolton, LeAnn Rimes and Celine Dion.

Diane Warren is proudly cheesy, proudly schmaltzy and proudly starting from 11 in each song. Several of her 14 Oscar-nominated songs were huge hits. In fact, in many ways, she was key in ushering in a short-lived era, that of the triple-threat movie: A box-office hit whose original soundtrack and lead single also topped their respective charts. On paper, whether you like her or not (or at least, respect her), she should’ve become the John Ford or Daniel Day-Lewis of this category, at least one Oscar per decade of work. How can you explain such an anomaly.

Well, allow me to put on my Be Kind Rewind and Todd In The Shadows wannabe caps, and let’s break down every one of her nominations and loses.

Nomination 1: “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”, cowritten with Albert Hammond for Mannequin. Interpreted by Starship and Grace Slick.

When?
The 60th Ceremony, 1988.

Lost to:
(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”, by John DeNicola, Donald Markowitz & Franke Previte. You know the movie.

Unless you don’t have a heart, there’s no way you can’t love “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”. It’s everything that is great about ’80s power ballads, especially the mid-decade ones. But “… The Time of My Life” is not just a great ’80s song, it’s a freaking landmark. It was a more than worthy entry, but sometimes the competition is so great it will put you in a corner.

Nomination 2: “Because You Loved Me”, for Up Close and Personal. Interpreted by Celine Dion.

When?
The very nice 69th Ceremony, 1997.

Lost to:
“You Must Love Me”, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. For Evita, performed by Madonna.

This was Lord Andy’s second nomination and sole Oscar win, and perhaps that’s who the Academy wanted to reward. Meanwhile, “Because You Loved Me” is pretty much a perfect distillation of ’90s power ballads, in a way that was too Pop for the squeamish, Adult-Contemporary-by-Way-Of-Broadway tastes of the Academy back then. But who should’ve won? “That Thing You Do!”, by the Late great Adam Schlesinger

Nomination 3: “How Do I Live”, for Con Air. Performed by LeAnn Rimes.

When?
The 70th Ceremony, for 1997’s movies.

Lost to:
If you’re doing the math, you know already:

It was only fitting that one of the campiest action movies ever would have a soundtrack to match, starting with the fact that LeAnn was 14 at the time she recorded it, but sung it with 30-year-old-in-her-third-breakup-with-a-long-term-partner energy. But neither stood a chance when your competition is the Titanic song. And no, I refuse to make iceberg-related puns.

Nomination 4: “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, for Armageddon. Performed by Aerosmith.

When?
The 71st Ceremony, 1999.

Lost to:
When You Believe”, for The Prince of Egypt, by Stephen Schwartz, performed by Mariah and Whitney themselves.

This should’ve been her time. This song might not only be her most successful one, but also a perfect distillation of what makes her great and also Too Much. But still, it was one of the biggest hits of the year, featured in the biggest movie of the year. And even if, by then, the Academy was already developing antibodies against Michael Bay, there was little to stand in Warren’s way to an Oscar.

Anything except getting Mariah and Whitney, at their peak, to perform the lead song of the greatest movie about the Bible ever made.

Nomination 5: “Music of My Heart”, for Music of the Heart. Performed by Gloria Estefan and… NSYNC.

When?
The 72nd Ceremony, 2000.

Lost to:
“Blame Canada”!

If only, it was Phil Collins “You’ll Be In My Heart”, for Disney’s Tarzan.

The previous year’s loss must’ve been a blow, because she came back with a very safe, very non-descript pop ballad. And that’s saying something. I mean, you get Gloria Estefan and you have her sing like she was… Shania?

Nah, the real injustice here was Phil Collins’ win. And even if I might have a soft spot for it, this was a year where the voters could’ve chosen between Aimee Mann’s “Save Me”, “Blame Canada” and “When She Loved Me” by Randy Newman. And they still dropped the ball.

Nomination 6: “There You’ll Be”, for Pearl Harbor. Performed by Faith Hill

When?
The 73rd Ceremony, 2002.

Lost to:
If I Didn’t Have You”, by Randy Newman for Monsters Inc. Performed by John Goodman and Billy Crystal.

Closing an era of five near-consecutive nominations that were also chart hits, Warren gambled on a movie that really, really, really, reaaaallyyy wanted to be the next Titanic, and though “There You’ll Be” is in no way a copycat of “My Heart Will Go On” (Diane Warren is waaay too good for that), it simply reflected the try-hardness of its movie. Plus, Randy Newman had been snubbed six times before, so it was his time, and for a movie everyone loved.

Nomination 7: “Grateful”, for Beyond the Lights. Performed by Rita Ora.

When?
The 87th Ceremony, 2015.

Lost to:
“Glory”, written and performed by Common and John Legend, for Selma.

It took her 13 years to make her way back, and adapting herself to the times… this song is plagued by the 2010s wall of sound, that have dominated power ballads so far. A lot of booming digital drums overcrowding every layered sound, always trying to chase that thing Beyoncé did in “Halo”. Meanwhile, “Glory” was just pure Class Soul and Hip Hop, written for and about Dr. King. Once again, Warren ran into an OP contestant.

Nomination 8: “Til it Happens to You”, for The Hunting Ground. Cowritten and performed by Lady Gaga.

When?
The 88th Ceremony, 2016.

Lost to:
“Writing’s on the Wall”, by Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes, for Spectre.

This was her second strongest shot since “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”, and for once, I think she should’ve won. Gaga punches it up with a Rock-ier, raw and angry voice. In dealing with College sexual abuse, it couldn’t have been more topical (until the victory of the former guy, somehow, made the press abandon the issue). The performance at the Oscars was one for the ages, introduced by then Veep Joe Biden himself. But then it lost to one of the worst Bond songs ever, because Adele’s “Skyfall” was such a high that I think every Bond song for next decade is doomed to win this particular Oscar.

Nomination 9: “Stand Up For Something”, for Marshall. Cowritten and performed by Common and Andra Day.

When?
The 90th Ceremony, 2018.

Lost to:
“Remember Me”, by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, for Coco. Performed by various.

This is a case of “let’s just repeat the success of ‘Glory’ if it means I can finally win this thing,” but she was already facing a major competitor in the cheesy subcategory with the surprise hit of “This Is Me”, from The Greatest Showman. But they were all, once again, the sideshow to the lead song for Pixar’s first proper Musical. I don’t know how many Latines and/or Spanish-speaking people are there in the Academy, but they all poured in for “Remember Me”, which had already become a Latin Standard by the time the ceremony rolled around.

Nomination 10: “I’ll Fight”, for RBG. Performed by Jennifer Hudson.

When?
The 91st Ceremony, 2019.

Lost to:
“Shallow”, you know the rest already.

Going for another inspirational song about a landmark Supreme Justice, I wonder if there’s a whole group of Academy voters that are a bit put off by how it might come across. But I actually think the beat and vocals in this are great. They are less perfect, the wall of sound is gone. But once again, for the sixth time so far, she lost to a song that simply couldn’t be stopped and had already become, pretty much, a Standard.

Nomination 11: “I’m Standing With You”, for Breakthrough. Performed by Chrissy Metz.

When?
The 92nd Ceremony, 2020.

Lost to:
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”, cowritten by Bernie Taupin and Elton John, and performed by the latter, for Rocketman.

Written for one of those nice-people, mainstream Christian movies that feature actually popular actors and are directed by competent people, this song is more of a throwback to her 90s stuff. But just like with her 2nd and 3rd nominations, she was facing an even more popular artist who had been due for a long time. Well, Elton John had actually won one for The Lion King, but by those years, he had already started this retirement tour, so probably the Academy thought it was their last chance. And the song slaps just enough.

Nomination 12: “Io Sí (Seen)”, for The Life Ahead. Cowritten and Performed by Laura Pausini.

When?
The 93rd Ceremony, 2021.

Lost to:
“Fight for You”, cowritten and performed by H.E.R, D’Mile and Tiara Thomas, for Judas and the Black Messiah.

It was inevitable for these two to meet. Laura Pausini is, to the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese markets, what Celine Dion is to the rest of the world, but even more hyper for Italian Standards. Surprisingly, “Io Sí” is VERY restrained. And though the Oscar went to one of the most popular singers today, Warren’s current string of nominations have been for smaller films, not campaign priorities for the distributors. But perhaps it’s because times and tastes have actually changed.

Nomination 13: “Somehow You Do”, for Four Good Days. Performed by Reba McEntire

When?
The 94th Ceremony, 2022.

Lost to:
“No Time to Die”, for the Bond movie of the same name. Performed and cowritten by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.

Once again, we have a soundtrack for a little seen movie competing against: 1) a song from a hit Disney musical, written by Lin Manuel-Miranda; 2) a song by Beyoncé; and 3) a post-Skyfall Bond song, written by the most popular young artist at the moment, and which happens to be pretty great.

Nomination 14: “Applause” for Tell It Like a Woman. Performed by Sofia Carson.

When?
The 95th Ceremony, 2023.

She’ll Probably Lose To:
You Know the One.

The rest of the competition is hard enough. A hit track by Rihanna for a Black Panther movie. Another by David Byrne, for the music nerds in the Academy. A power ballad by Lady Gaga for the real most popular movie of the year, which is only comparatively less popular. But the unstoppable force this year is the Larger-Than-Life Indian Film That Could, whose central song is basically an anti-Colonial dance-off.

It’s interesting that she has scored over half of her nominations during the last decade, almost consecutively. I think she clearly has a devoted fanbase within Academy voters, more than enough to guarantee a nomination, but too small to help her win. Then there is the question about whether she deserves a win or not (she did receive an Honorary Academy Award last year). And I’d say that regardless of your taste… I mean, at least some of her nominated songs have been better than the average? This is a category in which Lionel Richie has won. Lionel. Richie. He won with his 80s music, an endless source of inspiration for lazy and washed-up male pop stars. He won it and you are going to tell me Diane Warren doesn’t deserve an Oscar?

The problem is that her latter songs have become more and more stale. “Applause” is on the wrong side of schmaltzy (they should’ve nominated a 4*Town track from Turning Red). Moreover, I don’t think she should be making songs for these smaller, more intimate movies like Four Good Days or Breakthrough. She needs to write songs for a Michael Bay again, she needs to go big with the big productions. Maybe she could put a dose of earnest charm in the hyper self-conscious MCU movies. But I think the true solution to her predicament will be performing right in front of her this Sunday: Music for Indian movies, Tollywood or Bollywood. An unorthodox pairing, but Diane Warren has proven she can adapt her very defined sound.

Alberto Cox really hopes he doesn’t end up being yelled at by Ms. Warren, who is well known for dropping C-bombs like a Peter Capaldi character. This is a tribute ma’am, I’m a Millennial! We love earnestness, we don’t do irony!