In the history of the Academy Awards, Diane Warren has one unusual distinction. The songwriter behind many of the most iconic songs of all time, including “Rhythm of the Night,” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” and “Un-Break My Heart” has received a lot of accolades in her career, but she’s never won an Oscar. She’s been nominated for 17 Oscars, but even when it seemed like the competition was slim and she wrote one of the best songs of her whole career, she always lost.
It got so bad that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences finally had to something about it, so they gave Warren an Honorary Academy Award in 2022, just for the sheer volume of classic songs she’s written for various motion pictures. And still she keeps coming back, year after year. She won the Honorary Oscar three years ago, and she’s been nominated every year since, determined to win that danged thing outright.
And in a classic case of everything coming full circle, this year Diane Warren is nominated for “Dear Me,” a song written for a documentary about Diane Warren, called “Diane Warren: Relentless,” which is partly about how Diane Warren has never won that damned Oscar. And even after handing the Academy a tearjerking awards show moment on a silver platter, she’s still considered the underdog, because she’s up against “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” and “I Lied to You” from “Sinners.”
Well, if the Academy isn’t going to give Warren her laurels this year, it’s up to us. We’re ranking every single Oscar-nominated Diane Warren song. And before we get started we should make it clear: We stan for Diane Warren in this house. All these songs are at least good, and a lot of them are great. Even the worst Diane Warren song is better than a lot of other Oscar-nominated songs.
But we have to set the floor somewhere, so we may as well start with the Cheetos movie.
17. “The Fire Inside” (from ‘Flamin’ Hot’)
The Oscar Went To: “What Was I Made For” (from “Barbie”)
Diane Warren has written a lot of songs for a lot of movies. Some were good, some were bad, but only one is about Cheetos. “Flamin’ Hot,” directed by Eva Longoria, was a late entry in the (mercifully short) wave of biographical dramas that celebrated corporate products, and sure enough, it has a lot of positive things to say about PepsiCo and the man who claims to have invented the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto, Richard Montañez. The movie arguably means well but it’s fundamentally a commercial, which unfortunately bleeds into Diane Warren’s otherwise solid song.
When Becky G sings “You got the fire inside” we’re supposed to think she’s talking about following your dreams, but she’s mostly talking Cheeto products. It’s more of an advertising jingle than anything, but it’s not a bad jingle. Diane Warren lost the Oscar to Billie Eilish, for the second time, and for the second time we have to admit it was hardly an injustice.
16. “Applause” (from ‘Tell It Like a Woman’)
The Oscar Went To: “Naatu Naatu” (from “RRR”)
Sometimes Diane Warren writes a perfectly good song about celebrating your own life — in this case, for a respectable anthology movie from directors like Catherine Hardwicke and Taraji P. Henson — and the nomination draws attention to a film a lot of people otherwise might never have heard of, let alone watched. That’s a very good thing, whether the song wins an award or not.
And thank goodness, because there was no way this straightforward power ballad was ever going to win in the same year “Naatu Naatu” became an international sensation. It was also up against epic songs from “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and the quirkier “This Is a Life,” from 2022’s Best Picture-winner, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The odds were completely stacked against it. The timing, as is usually the case for Diane Warren at the Academy Awards, simply sucked.
15. “I’m Standing With You” (from ‘Breakthrough’)
The Oscar Went To: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (from “Rocketman”)
It may seem like Diane Warren’s Oscar-nominated song is the only noteworthy thing about the 2019 drama “Breakthrough,” but that’s not entirely true. Directed by “Star Trek: Voyager” alumni Roxann Dawson, the film tells the based-on-a-true story of a teenager who fell in an icy lake and was underwater for 15 minutes, and still survived, which is admittedly an interesting story. It’s also a pretty good movie, especially compared a lot of the other Christian films that were released in the post-“God’s Not Dead” zeitgeist.
The song itself, however, isn’t one of Diane Warren’s most memorable power ballads. It’s a generically uplifting inspirational number, belted with class and confidence by “The Hunting Wives” co-star Chrissy Metz. Well crafted, powerfully produced, it’s a worthy nominee for Best Original Song but there was no way it was going to beat Elton John’s energetic ditty from his own musical biopic, or “Into the Unknown” from “Frozen 2,” which was also nominated in 2019.
14. “I’ll Fight” (from ‘RBG’)
The Oscar Went To: “Shallow” (from “A Star is Born”)
The Ruth Bader Ginsberg biopic “RBG” put feminism front and center, highlighting a real-life legal battle over sexual discrimination, argued by the future Supreme Court Justice. So of course it needed an inspirational anthem, and of course Diane Warren delivered. It helps that Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson was on hand to sell every note, with everything she had, which is a hell of a lot.
But this was yet another year where an excellent, satisfying power ballad couldn’t compete with a runaway hit. “A Star Is Born” was a blockbuster musical drama, elevated by the awe-inspiring song “Shallow,” co-written by Lady Gaga. What’s more, “Shallow” was an integral part of the film’s storyline, which always gives a nominee a huge visibility boost. “I’ll Fight” put up a good fight but, even in Hollywood, the underdog frequently loses.
13. “Io sì (Seen)” (from ‘The Life Ahead’)
The Oscar Went To: “Fight for You” (from “Judas and the Black Messiah”)
Another classic example of an obscure film breaking into the Academy Awards, courtesy of Diane Warren, “The Life Ahead” stars Sophia Loren as Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor and former sex worker who now cares for other sex workers’ children. A close bond forms between Rosa and a young orphan as she declines in physical and mental health.
Yeah, it sounds heavy, so don’t expect one of Warren’s peppier ditties. “Io sì (Seen)” is an ethereal song, emotional and tender, revolving around itself, enveloping the listener with warmth and sensitivity. It’s not catchy, which made it a huge longshot at the Academy Awards (the movie’s obscurity didn’t help) but it’s a lovely song that befits the film’s story. It may not have deserved to win, but its nomination was well-earned.
12. “There You’ll Be” (from ‘Pearl Harbor’)
Lost the Oscar to: “If I Didn’t Have You” (from “Monsters Inc.”)
Michael Bay took a serious stab at serious filmmaking with his 2001 historical epic “Pearl Harbor,” starring Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett as pilots who get swept up in the early days of World War II. The film is gigantic, and impressive to look at, but it’s also absolute malarky, told with all the subtlety of a hand grenade. Basically, Bay took the formula from James Cameron’s “Titanic” and did it again with a different historical tragedy. They even offered Diane Warren’s theme song, “There You’ll Be,” to Celine Dion, who seemed to recognize that the production was a little familiar and turned it down.
Instead, “There You’ll Be” wound up with country music superstar Faith Hill, who knows exactly what to do with a maudlin tearjerker: She plays it completely straight, letting Warren’s confident, mournful lyrics float away. The song is an odd duck. in some ways. It always seems to resist the urge to break into an honest to goodness chorus, at the very last minute, and it’s a little too “up” to sell the singer’s supposed grief, even if she does take comfort in her dead lover’s memory.
Either way, a hit is still a hit. “There You’ll Be” was ubiquitous on U.S. radio stations in the summer of 2001, even though it’s somewhat forgotten now. It lost the Oscar to Randy Newman’s friendly “Monsters Inc.” theme song “If I Didn’t Have You,” and it’s hard for Diane Warren fans to begrudge this one, since that win ended Randy Newman’s own, bafflingly long Oscars losing streak. He’d been nominated for 15 Academy Awards without a single win, which is still a lot, but now Warren’s streak is even longer. Winning the award for the most losses hardly feels like a win, now does it?
11. “The Journey” (from ‘The Six Triple Eight’)
The Oscar Went To: “El Mal” (from “Emilia Pérez”)
Tyler Perry movies don’t usually get Oscar nominations, but be fair, he usually doesn’t try to push the Academy’s buttons with tried-and-true formulas like biographical dramas and World War II pictures. “The Six Triple Eight” was an exception, telling the true story of the only Black, all-women U.S. Army Corps unit that was sent overseas in the second World War, and who heroically fixed a righteous mess that prevented American soldiers from receiving letters on the front lines.
It’s a noble film, even if it’s not a particularly good one, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to “The Journey.” One of Diane Warren’s better late-era power ballads is an inspiring number, sung with vibrant, earnest, beautiful energy by H.E.R. In a better world it probably would have won, since “Emilia Pérez” and its extremely misguided, arguably transphobic approach to trans issues were already under fire, and rightfully so.
Plus, “El Mal” is just an erratic, awkward number, and it doesn’t hit as hard as “The Journey.” It’s tempting to suggest that if “The Six Triple Eight” had been a better film it would have improved Diane Warren’s chances, but “Emilia Pérez” was a bad film and it won two Oscars, so maybe that doesn’t have much to do with it.
10. “Somehow You Do” (from ‘Four Good Days’)
The Oscar Went To: “No Time to Die” (from “No Time to Die”)
Diane Warren writes a lot of songs, and there’s a lot of variety on her resumé, but her Oscar-nominated numbers are often either feel-good love songs or heavy belters about believing in yourself. It’s easy to hear some of her nominated works and enjoy them, respect them, but feel like they’re a little interchangeable.
“Somehow You Do” isn’t one of those. It’s a ballad, no doubt about it, but not a terrifically inspirational one. It’s a haunting, weary song about barely muddling through, sung with introspection by the great Reba McEntire, whose inflections add depth to nearly every lyric. The film it’s from, “Four Good Days,” was an otherwise overlooked addiction drama starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis, and — as is often the case for Diane Warren nominations — her contribution is destined to be the most memorable aspect of the production.
Warren’s song was never going to win this year. She was up against Billie Eilish, who emerged victorious over Warren again just two years later. But she was also competing with Beyoncé Knowles theme for “King Richard” and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who probably would have won if Disney submitted any of the fun songs from “Encanto” instead of the dramatic, but less memorable number “Dos Oruguitas.”
9. “Stand Up for Something” (from ‘Marshall’)
The Oscar Went To: “Remember Me” (from “Coco”)
Reginald Hudlin’s historical biopic “Marshall” isn’t one of the most memorable films in Chadwick Boseman’s tragically short career, but it’s a capable legal drama and Boseman is, as you can imagine, fantastic in it. The film didn’t make much of a dent at the Oscars, even though it checks a lot of the Academy’s favorite boxes, but the theme song came through anyway, in a very competitive year.
Diane Warren wrote the music for “Stand Up for Something” and co-wrote the lyrics with Common, who performs the song in a duet with Andra Day. It’s an unusually percussive melody for one of Warren’s Oscar hopefuls, which boosts its power and fanfare, and Day and Common are in top form. It makes you wonder how many other Oscar-nominated Supreme Court Justice origin story theme songs Warren has in her back pocket, since there are already two of them. But until they make “Rehnquist: Sorry About the Florida Election Thing” we’ll just have to keep wondering.
“Stand for Something” lost the Oscar to “Remember Me” from “Coco,” another song that’s instrumental to its film’s story, which made it tough to beat. But it was also the same year “The Greatest Showman” was nominated, so this excellent number probably never stood a chance.
8. “Music of My Heart” (from ‘Music of the Heart’)
The Oscar Went To: “You’ll Be in My Heart” (from “Tarzan”)
There’s a lot of 1990s nostalgia going around nowadays, but nobody’s bringing back hit soundtrack songs that unite a bunch of different pop stars like they were The Avengers. The “Three Musketeers” theme song “All for Love,” which assembled Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting, was a chart-topping sensation. The theme song to “Music of the Heart” was slightly less popular, but still a big hit, even though Gloria Estefan and N*Sync weren’t nearly as natural a match.
“Music of the Heart” starred Meryl Streep as Roberta Guaspari, a high school music teacher trying to secure arts funding for her struggling students. It doesn’t sound like a particularly unusual movie until you realize it was directed by Wes Craven, the master of horror himself, in the only conventionally dramatic credit on his resumé. Meryl Streep was Oscar-nominated and so was Diane Warren’s theme song, which isn’t quite called “Music of the Heart,” which is mildly confusing.
In any case, “Music of My Heart” is a respectable entry in both N*Sync and Estefan’s credits, playing to each performer’s mellower strengths and achieving that ever-so-important quality for a soundtrack song: It’s kinda catchy. “Extremely catchy” would have been better, but it’s too sweet and sensitive for that kind of head-bumping jauntiness.
Warren did an excellent job with this number, but it was buried amongst that year’s other, excellent and more noteworthy nominees. Aimee Mann’s “Save Me” from “Magnolia” and “Blame Canada” from the “South Park” movie probably split the votes among the cool voters, leaving room for Phil Collins’ decent, but ho-hum “Tarzan” theme to swing away with the top prize.
7. “Grateful” (from ‘Beyond the Lights’)
The Oscar Went To: “Glory” (from “Selma”)
Gina Prince-Bythewood is one of the best filmmakers most people don’t know by name. She keeps churning out wonderful movies that, sadly, don’t get enough attention. Her debut feature “Love & Basketball” is a classic in both the romance and sports genres, her action-packed historical epic “The Woman King” should have been a major awards contender (and we’re still mad that it wasn’t), and her backstage pop music romance “Beyond the Lights” was yet another winner that should have won more.
The film stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a chart-topping singer wrestling with the psychological strain of stardom, who gradually falls in love with a police officer who stops her from ending her own life. But Diane Warren had a tough job to do this time, and she nailed it.
“Beyond the Lights” is a film about pop musicians, so any original song that features prominently needs to sound like it could be one of their big hits. “Grateful” nails that, and Warren’s excellent melody and heartfelt lyrics land hard when they’re belted by Rita Ora. Rven though the song plays over the closing credits, “Grateful’s” serious sentiments and joyful energy feel more like a fitting punctuation to Prince-Bythewood’s film than just another song to play while the titles roll.
“Grateful” is another Diane Warren song that lost the Oscar to a past or future Diane Warren collaborator. “Glory,” the theme song to “Selma,” written by Common and John Legend,” took home the top prize. And if it hadn’t, Warren still would have had the chipper earworm “Everything is Awesome” from “The LEGO Movie” to contend with. As far as the Academy Awards are concerned, Warren can never catch a damn break.
6. “How Do I Live” (from ‘Con Air’)
The Oscar Went To: “My Heart Will Go On” (from “Titanic”)
Not every Diane Warren song is a timeless classic, even if it’s a damn good song. But now that we’ve reached “How Do I Live” we are officially in banger territory. “How Do I Live” is such a fantastic power ballad that it was a chart-topping song twice in one year, from two different artists. LeAnn Rimes recorded “How Do I Live” first, but when the producers thought it needed a different vibe they re-recorded it with Trisha Yearwood. Both singles premiered on the radio the exact same day. Both songs were enormous mega-successes. You couldn’t go anywhere in 1997 without hearing one or both versions in the background somewhere. They were huge.
In fact, the songs were so huge that they took on a life of their own, and are no longer immediately associated with the film they were written for. If you played either version of “How Do I Live” for somebody who’s never heard it before, and ask which 1990s blockbuster they thought it was written about, there is zero chance their first guess would be “Con Air,” the movie where Nicolas Cage goes “Die Hard” on a prison airplane packed with characters actors like John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi, operating at most ludicrous levels of villainy.
On one hand, “How Do I Live” is a weird fit for a film like “Con Air.” On the other hand it’s such a great song it hardly matters where it came from. In a lot of other years it could have been a shoo-in for the Oscar, but unfortunately for Diane Warren, “Con Air” came out in 1997, the same year as “Titanic.” But nobody was going to beat “My Heart Will Go On” in the Best Original Song category. And sure enough, nobody did.
5. “Dear Me” (from ‘Diane Warren: Relentless’)
The Oscar Went To: TBD
There are a lot of Diane Warren songs about love, hope and other big ideas, inspired by films that cover equally broad topics. And a lot of those songs are wonderful, or at least reasonably good, but when Warren gets personal, we get something special.
You can tell “Dear Me” is personal, because it’s literally about writing a letter to her younger self, and because it was written for a documentary about Diane Warren. You can learn a lot from the movie “Diane Warren: Relentless,” and it’s hard not to respect her afterwards. Here’s a woman who wrote many of the greatest love songs in history, and she’s only had one relationship, and it didn’t last, and it didn’t seem profoundly romantic. She can see the world through other people’s eyes and she writes amazing songs from those perspectives. She’s not just songwriting. She’s also acting.
But “Dear Me” is about her own journey, and it hits harder than most of her other Oscar-nominated songs. As sung by Kesha, who brings her own experiences and intensity to the recording studio, “Dear Me” is a powerful ode to a lifelong journey, and a meaningful look back at the person Warren was, who she became, and where she is now.
And of course, because it’s the Oscars, one of her best songs in many years is still a total underdog because “KPop Demon Hunters” is the runaway favorite, and even if gets nudged out of the race, it’s almost certainly going to be because of “I Lied to You” from “Sinners,” not because of Warren’s much-deserved 17th nomination.
4. “Because You Loved Me” (from ‘Up Close and Personal’)
The Oscar Went To: “You Must Love Me” (from “Evita”)
Celine Dion turned down Diane Warren’s theme song for “Pearl Harbor,” but they had already worked together on a smashing love song that still endures, long after the film and its controversies have been largely forgotten. “Because You Loved Me” is a killer track, moving and swelling as it tells a story about feeling gratitude for a loved one’s inspiration, affection and support.
“Because You Loved Me” was written for the romantic drama “Up Close & Personal,” which was supposed to based on real-life reporter Jessica Savitch. But the story changed dramatically in development and no longer has much, if anything, to do with her real life. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a talented reporter on the path to greatness, guided by a news director played by Robert Redford. Of course they fall in love.
The movie was a modest success, despite very mixed reviews, but the song was a blockbuster. “Because You Loved Me” topped the charts, and now has a life all its own, free from any connection with its original context. It’s still considered one of the best love songs ever written.
And it lost the Oscar for the song they wrote for the movie version of “Evita” so it could eligible for Best Original Song, which is not as good as Warren’s work. However, it was also competing against the ultra-catchy theme song to “That Thing You Do!” So it was, as always, a tough year for Warren.
3. “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (from ‘Armageddon’)
The Oscar Went To: “When You Believe” (from “The Prince of Egypt”)
Do you know which movie needed an absolutely kick-ass, all-timer love song? The Michael Bay movie about nuking a giant asteroid. “Armageddon” is laughably overwrought and bombastic in every way, so if it’s going to oversell how inspirational it is to watch a deep sea drilling team become astronauts and walk to a space shuttle in slow-motion, you can bet your butt it’s going to oversell the love story between Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler.
Diane Warren’s power ballad would normally wind up in the hands of a conventional balladeer, but enlisting Aerosmith — an iconic seventies hard rock band, enjoying a major career resurgence in the 1990s — was an inspired decision. Steven Tyler’s impressive pipes were made for conveying (sweet) emotion, and the heavy electric guitars combine with a classy orchestral sweep, giving “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” a sensitively masculine vibe.
The song was infectious, and it’s still Aerosmith’s biggest hit ever — which is impressive for the band that gave us “Walk This Way,” “Dream On,” and “Cryin’.” Needless to say, Diane Warren killed it. It’s hard to believe this one lost the Oscar, even to the inspirational “Prince of Egypt” theme “When You Believe.” Diane Warren was usually up against impossible odds in the Best Original Song category. This time, she was arguably just plain, old-fashioned robbed.
2. “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (from ‘Mannequin’)
The Oscar Went To: “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (from “Dirty Dancing”)
It’s funny, looking back on it now, that most of Diane Warren’s best Oscar-nominated songs were from movies that didn’t seem like serious awards contenders. “Con Air” and “Armageddon” were never going to be nominated for Best Picture, and you can definitely say the same thing about “Mannequin,” a 1987 rom-com starring Kim Cattrall as a magical mannequin who comes to life when nobody’s looking and romances Andrew McCarthy, who plays a guy who dreams of becoming a celebrated department store window artist.
Yeah, that’s the real plot. The only thing weirder about “Mannequin” is that, laughable premise be damned, it’s actually a very fun, well-made movie that knows how goofy it is. Still, you’d never think while watching it that it could be nominated for an Oscar. That is, until you heard “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” co-written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond. It’s an astoundingly catchy, uplifting love song about how love empowers us, and makes us feel like anything’s possible. And it was written about a guy who falls in love with a mannequin.
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” isn’t so much performed by Starship as it is channeled from a magical musical ether where great songs are born. It was a #1 hit and it’s still one of the most beloved songs of the 1980s. There’s no conceivable way “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” could lose the Academy Award for Best Original Song, unless somehow it was competing against “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing.”
Aw, dang it.
1. “Til It Happens to You” (from ‘The Hunting Ground’)
The Oscar Went To: “Writing’s On the Wall” (from “Spectre”)
In case you skipped to the end and didn’t read the rest of this article, the leitmotif in Diane Warren’s motion picture career is that she wrote great, sometimes even iconic songs which were consistently undone by lousy timing. “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” “Because You Loved Me,” it didn’t matter, there was always a more popular movie or a slightly bigger song to compete with, so no matter how much you wanted her to win, you kinda had to accept that the competition was fierce. It was just, sadly, never her year.
Except for 2015. By all rights, 2015 should have been her year. Not only had she written one of the best songs of her career, working alongside superstar Lady Gaga, but it was for a critically acclaimed documentary, and the competition was looking slim. There was no way “Racing Extinction,” “Youth” or even “Fifty Shades of Grey” was taking home that Oscar. The only other contender was Sam Smith’s “Writing’s on the Wall,” an atypically depressing James Bond song, written for an atypically unpopular James Bond movie, which was clearly not on the same level as previous Bond themes like “Skyfall,” “Goldfinger” or, heck, even “Thunderball.”
What’s more, “Til It Happens to You” is a profoundly personal song about a serious topic: sexual assault, sung from the perspective of a woman responding to condescension from people (read: men) who don’t understand her trauma. It’s the rare Diane Warren song that’s sung in the second person but isn’t uplifting. It’s bitter and hurt, and reserves its sympathy for people who know what it’s like to feel bitter and hurt. It’s incredible and confrontational. It’s one of the best and most meaningful songs Warren has ever written. Maybe even the best.
And it lost to “Writing’s On the Wall,” a song about how James Bond was sad that day.
Some people, literally, just can’t win.
