Diane Warren has a 16th chance to score that elusive Oscar
With her nomination this year for “The Journey” from the Netflix historical drama The Six Triple Eight, Diane Warren has now contended 16 times at the Oscars, including the last eight years in a row, for Best Original Song. But the veteran artist — who has a Grammy, an Emmy, and two Golden Globes in her trophy case — has yet to score a competitive Oscar. Could this be her year?
Warren does, however, have an Honorary Oscar, which she collected in 2022 for her impressive body of work. That made her the first and currently only songwriter to receive that recognition from the Motion Picture Academy.
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Her 15 previous nominations are as follows:
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Mannequin (1987)
Lost to: “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing
“Because You Loved Me” from Up Close and Personal (1996)
Lost to: “You Must Love Me” from Evita
“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from Armageddon (1998)
Lost to: “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt
“Music of My Heart” from Music of the Heart (1999)
Lost to: “You’ll Be in My Heart” from Tarzan
“There You’ll Be” from Pearl Harbor (2001)
Lost to: “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc.
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights (2014)
Lost to: “Glory” from Selma
“Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground (2015)
Lost to: “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre
“Stand Up for Something” from Marshall (2017)
Lost to: “Remember Me” from Coco
“I’ll Fight” from RBG (2018)
Lost to: “Shallow” from A Star Is Born
“I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough (2019)
Lost to: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman
“Io Si (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (2020)
Lost to: “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah
“Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days (2021)
Lost to: “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die
“Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman (2022)
Lost to: “Naatu Naatu” from RRR
“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (2023)
Lost to: “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
Hours after the nominations announcement on Thursday, more than 2,800 Gold Derby users were already predicting the winners, with “El Mal” from the musical Emilia Pérez taking the early lead in our official odds. That film has the advantage of being the year’s top nominee with 13 bids, including Best Picture. “El Mal” also just won the Golden Globe for Best Song, while “The Journey” wasn’t even nominated. “The Journey” did win the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song, Feature Film.
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Though it’s not currently the frontrunner, “The Journey” is a close second in our predictions with one-third of expert journalists favoring the track. Another Emilia Pérez tune, “Mi Camino,” follows in third. “Like a Bird” from Sing Sing is fourth. And “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late ranks fifth. What could help “The Journey” is the fact that there are two Emilia Pérez songs in the mix, which risk splitting the vote and allowing another nominee to sneak through. That said, having two songs nominated didn’t hurt Pérez at the Globes, where “El Mal” and “Mi Camino” were also up against each other. And double noms didn’t stop Barbie last year at the Oscars: its ballad “What Was I Made For?” won over “I’m Just Ken.”
Another potential challenge for Emilia Pérez is the fact that its songs are in Spanish. Only four times has the Oscar gone to a song in a language other than English: “Never on Sunday” from Never on Sunday (Greek), “Al Otro Lado del Rio” from The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish), “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire (Hindi), and “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (Telugu). There’s also the fact that Emilia Pérez is highly divisive, having received criticism from GLAAD, among others, for its portrayal of transgender women. That too may be an opportunity for a rival to exploit.
And, of course, there’s the fact that the highly regarded Warren has yet to win the golden guy. The Academy shows her love every year in the nominations, making her one of the most-nominated songwriters in Oscar history. She’s tied with Paul Francis Webster as the third-most-nominated writer in the category’s history. They trail only Sammy Cahn (26) and Johnny Mercer (18). But Cahn and Mercer were both four-time winners, while Webster took home three statuettes. Warren is wildly overdue for one of her own, and it’s a testament to her esteem within the industry that she’s still a regular nominee after winning her honorary prize. Her peers seem to be looking for an opportunity to award her. It may only be a matter of time.
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