12-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren hopes for ‘awesome’ win
For a dozen and more reasons, Diane Warren would be overjoyed to win a best original song Oscar for her work in “The Life Ahead” starring Sophia Loren.
A trophy for the Italian-language film’s song, “Io Si (Seen),” would be Warren’s first after 11 previous Academy Award nominations came up short.
“Yeah, it would be great to win. It would be (expletive) awesome,” Warren said. “I feel like a team that’s gone to the World Series for decades and decades, and never wins.”
A triumph would be especially sweet for the veteran songwriter whose first Oscar bid was in 1988 (for the romcom “Mannequin”). The Academy Awards ceremony, originally set for February and delayed by the pandemic, airs April 25, the birthday of her late father, David Warren, and a coincidence that she calls “so cool.”
“He believed in me so much he would take me to music publishers when I was 14 or 15,” Warren said. “My mom would be saying, ‘Why are you doing it? Why are you encouraging her? She can’t make a living off that.’”
Warren, who grew up in Los Angeles, recounted her dad’s reply: “She has talent. She really, really wants this.”
Her gifts and drive led to success in a range of pop music genres and in film, with her past Oscar contenders including “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” by Aerosmith and featured in 1998’s “Armageddon.” It was a hit tune, one of Warren’s many that include “If I Could Turn Back Time” by Cher. Toss out a big name —
Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga — and Warren has likely worked with them.
She’s a confessed workaholic who typically writes solo but joined with Common on the 2019 Oscar-nominated “Stand Up for Something” for “Marshall,” a biopic about the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Whatever happens on Oscars night, Warren believes “Io Si (Seen)” is destined to become an evergreen covered by other artists. She’s seen it happen often enough, but remains far from jaded by her work’s influence.
“I sit in my little room all by myself (writing), and somehow the song touches people and makes them cry and makes them feel something,” she said. “It’s always amazing.”