The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
It’s an Honor Just to Be Nominated. No, Really, It Is
Diane Warren ought to know — she’s been up for an Oscar 15 times. And won only once (well, kind of)
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and hoping for a different result,” notes Oscar’s most nominated — and, alas, least winning — songwriter, Diane Warren. “So, I guess I’m certifiably insane.”
This year marks Warren’s 15th nomination for best original song, this time for “The Fire Inside,” Becky G’s Latin-themed tune from Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria’s directorial debut about the Frito-Lay janitor who claims he invented the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto. It could be Warren's first win (not counting her 2022 honorary Oscar). In a remarkable, odds-defying losing streak, the 67-year-old composer has been skunked on every nomination, including the past seven years in a row.
Some of those losses are pretty hard to fathom. Her Celine Dion power ballad “Because You Loved Me,” from the romantic drama Up Close and Personal, lost to Evita’s
“You Must Love Me” in 1997; the tune she wrote for Aerosmith, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” which got nominated for Armageddon, was bested by The Prince of Egypt’s “When You Believe” in 1999. Other losses — like Mannequin’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” which was Warren’s first No. 1 single but ultimately lost to Dirty Dancing’s “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” in 1988 — were just the result of bad timing.
Warren admits some losses still sting, but all those years of grinning stoically as other songwriters leaped to the podium to claim a statuette have at least taught her to change her perspective and temper her expectations. “I was never a popular kid — no one ever invited me to anything,” she says. “Now I get to go to the coolest party in the world. I actually stay up all night and count the seconds until the nominations are announced. I don’t ever lose the excitement about this.”
It may be a cliché, but Warren really does believe it’s an honor just to be nominated — which, when you think about it, makes her one of the most honored songwriters in Oscar history, at least in the past five decades.
After all, she correctly observes, “It’s not easy to get nominated for an Academy Award. They put you among five people, and there are a lot of others who didn’t get in. Just be thankful and grateful that you got the respect of the best in your field. No matter what the outcome is, you’ve already won.”