It’s fitting that the tune from the film The Six Triple Eight for which the legendary songwriter Diane Warren is Oscar-nominated this year is called “The Journey,” because no other Oscar contender has had a journey quite like Warren’s: This year, the 68-year-old Van Nuys native is nominated for the best original song Oscar this year for the 16th time in her career, the eighth year in a row and the tenth time in 11 years. And she has yet to win!
No person has ever been nominated more times for that category’s Oscar — and no woman has ever received more noms in any Oscars category — without winning. (Warren did receive an honorary statuette from the Academy in 2022, but it’s just not the same thing!)
Lest one assume that Warren hasn’t won because she is disliked, the exact opposite, in fact, is true — she is actually one of the most popular people in town, especially amongst her peers in the music community, which solely determines the best original song nominations. You don’t get 16 noms because people don’t like and respect you.
Rather, the issue seems to be that in years when Warren has been nominated for an absolute banger (like, say, “How Do I Live,” from Con Air), she has had the misfortune of coming up against another one that is somehow even bigger (like, that year, “My Heart Will Go On,” from Titanic). And when she has been nominated on other occasions (like, say, the year that she and Lady Gaga were co-nominated for “Til It Happens to You,” from the documentary The Hunting Ground), she has had the misfortune of coming up against songs from films that were much more widely seen by the full Academy (in that case, “Glory,” from Selma), which determines the best original song winner.
It seems probable that, at some point, a perfect storm will break in the direction of, rather than away from, Warren. Could that happen this year? It’s certainly possible.
While this is another year in which Warren’s song nom is the only one for her film, which suggests that many people either didn’t watch or didn’t like the film itself, she could be helped to overcome that by the drama surrounding a fellow Netflix film, Emilia Pérez. To begin with, the controversy surrounding that film’s best actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón has turned off some voters from the film altogether. Beyond that, Emilia Pérez has two songs nominated this year, “El Mal” and “Mi Camino,” and there’s certainly a chance that they could undercut each other’s prospects.
If that happens, would “The Journey” and Warren be the likeliest beneficiary? Not necessarily — the ballots lists only the nominated songs, not the nominated songwriters, so most voters would not even know — if they cared — that a vote for “The Journey” would be a vote for Warren. They would, however, probably assume that a vote for “Never Too Late” from the film Elton John: Never Too Late would be a vote for Elton John. And they might also be tempted to vote for “Like a Bird” if only because it comes from a film (Sing Sing) that, unlike Warren’s and John’s, was liked enough to land multiple nominations — the others being best actor (Colman Domingo) and best adapted screenplay.
But, as always, there’s a chance that things could break for Warren, so she will be at the ceremony, as excited and hopeful as ever.
This week, in recognition of her latest noms, Warren took THR on a musical walk down memory lane at RealSongs, her music publishing company’s headquarters, in Hollywood, performing a medley of all 16 of her nominated tunes in just over seven minutes. It’s a powerful reminder of just how great — and unlucky — she has been for so long!
