Sunday, April 25, 2021

Twelfth Times the Charm: Diane Warren: An Oscar Anomaly

 

Today is the big day. I think I speak for millions when I say this was the strangest year in cinema that we've had in quite some time. Ironically, this has less to do with what movies have come out and more with where we had to watch most of them, in our own houses. Tomorrow is "A Very COVID Oscars" (trademark pending), and everyone is excited to experience some degree of normalcy as we watch the Academy show us all how they are better than the Golden Globes in putting on a show that isn't riddled with self-conscious embarrassment. A very low bar indeed. 


This year, among many of the triumphant firsts, such as the first Asian and Muslim actors nominated for Best Actor and the first Asian woman nominated for Best Director, lies another underdog in an admittedly less popular category, Best Original Song. Diane Warren rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as a multi-talented songwriter. It took only a few short years for her to be recognized as a beacon of melodic and lyrical wonderment by the Billboard Charts and the Academy Awards. However, fate had other plans in mind for Warren's warbling. Eleven nominations later, and Warren has still not received a win, being foiled each year by songs just a few notches above hers in popularity, though not necessarily in musicality. Let's go through the musical journey that has led Diane and us to this day as we wait to see if one of the most renowned songwriters of this generation can finally bring home a statue that doesn't even have golden ears to enjoy her songs with like the rest of us. 


1. "Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship


Co-written with Starship Band member Albert Hammond for the movie Mannequin (1987). Admittedly, I have not seen this film yet, though I intend to, so I can't speak much to how the song resonates with the subject matter. I can speak to the fact that this is one of my parents wedding songs and is a prime example of Warren's musical prowess with its infectious and high-energy hook and all-encompassing declaration of an unstoppable love. It is undeniably 80s in sound and yet still resonates with nostalgic endearment to this day. The song is very much a template of what Warren't later work would achieve in terms of hypnotic memorability. Alas, this Oscar was snatched by the similarly nostalgic theme from Dirty Dancing (1988). It was the first, but certainly not the last time, that Diane's song would be overshadowed by box-office numbers, with the assistance in this specific case of Swayze's damn finely toned legs. 


2. "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion


Warren had already been collaborating with the Songstress for some time before they worked together to create one of the arguably best ballads of Dion's career for the film Up Close and Personal (1996). Though the film itself received lukewarm reviews, the song was a certified hit that helped solidify Dion as a household name until she'd go on the next year to do THAT SONG FROM TITANIC (1997), which deserves its own blog post. The song has obvious romantic connotations in connection to the film's subject matter, but Warren has admitted that the song's inspiration was, actually, her mother, whose endless support has helped her reach the stars. Here's hoping she has sufficient support tonight from the Academy as this time around, she was foiled by the only original song featured in the film version of Evita (1996) performed by Madonna, another powerful musician that Diane Warren has surprisingly never crossed musical paths with before. 


3. "How Do I Live" by LeAnn Rimes


A year later, Diane would work with the then-upcoming artist, LeAnn Rimes, who she'd go on to work with again in numerous other film-related projects. Sung for the film Con Air (1997), the song is quintessential Diane Warren with its lush melody and impassioned lyrics professing the question of how one can endure life without the one they love. The short answer is, you listen to a lot of LeAnn Rimes to deal with it. Rimes and Warren stood no chance of being the victors in this round up against Titanic, but the song still became a stable of the 90s and is considered one of Rimes's most well-known vocal performances. 


4. "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith


Diane Warren was on a two-year losing streak at the Academy Awards that unfortunately didn't stop, despite the quality of work remaining above par. Aerosmith's rock ballad, originally intended for Celine Dion, was powerful vocally but powerless against the likes of duetting divas Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, who sung "When You Believe" for The Prince of Egypt (1998). 


5. "Music of My Heart by Gloria Estefan and NSYNC 


If this musical pair-up isn't strange enough, the director of this film, which is about a music teacher inspiring and improving the lives of her young impoverished students through the power of instruments, was the late and great Wes Craven, known primarily for horror films. The movie was a modest success, and the song encapsulates the devotion an effective educator has towards their pupils and the gratitude those pupils have for their educator in return. Phil Collins walked away with the Oscar instead for "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan (1999), a song that should make you cry just from reading the title, lest you are a soulless miscreant. 


6. "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill 


After having no Academy nominations in 2000, Diane returned to the red carpet with a ballad for her second Michael Bay project, this time an arguably better one, Pearl Harbor (2001). Sung by Faith Hill, most people interpret the song as being from the perspective of Kate Beckinsale's character. However, it's worth noting the lyrics have a kind of duality to them and could just as easily be inspired by the male friendship at the center of the film between Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett's characters. Diane continues to lose in style against another well-respected songwriter for the screen, Randy Newman, with his song "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters Inc (2001). If the Academy didn't have Randy and those monsters that year, there is little doubt Diane would've left with her first Oscar. 


7. "Grateful" by Rita Ora


In 2014, this marked Warren's first nomination in several years, and it must be noted that many felt she was strangely robbed of a nomination four years prior for "You Haven't Seen The Last of Me" from Burlesque (2010) even though the song garnered critical acclaim and won that year's Best Song Award at the Golden Globes. "Grateful", a self-empowerment anthem, was plagued by poor promotion by both the label and singer Rita Ora herself, something that Diane Warren was unafraid to express her qualms about on social media at the time. Honestly, with this being her seventh nomination without a win, you could hardly blame her for feeling a lack of support, a sentiment shared by the main character in the film Beyond the Lights (2014), for which the song was written.  


8. "Till it Happens to You" by Lady Gaga


Another rarest instance of collaboration for Warren, here she and Mother Monster cover a topic rarely discussed, let alone sung about, rape. Used for the documentary The Hunting Ground (2015), the song's haunting melody and starkly blunt lyrics make it clear that this is nothing to be subtle about the severity of this topic and Warren and Gaga's habit for grandeur in their musical works come in very much handy here. Gaga's performance of it was accompanied by a large group of survivors giving the already emotional punch of a song added depth and sober somberness. The song lost out on the award to Sam Smith's Bond Theme, and this may be the first year where Diane's loss is truly undeserved given the initial lackluster reception to Smith's theme by the media and general public when it was first released.  


9. "Stand Up for Something" by Common and Andra Day


Continuing off from the experimental nature of her last collab with Gaga, this tune found Warren teaming up with acclaimed rapper and actor Common to craft a song to honor Chadwick Boseman's portrayal of Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017). Andra Day brings the song to life with the necessary combination of tenderness and strength that it requires, and the results are worthy of the subject matter, even if they weren't worthy of the Academy Award, which went instead to "Remember Me" from Coco (2017). 


10. "I'll Fight" by Jennifer Hudson


The soul of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lives on in this anthemic number brought to life by the multi-blessed vocals of Jennifer Hudson. It is a high honor in life to be able to write a song dedicated to one progressive giant in the world of justice, while Warren has been twice blessed with such a responsibility. The year, Warren had little faith that she'd be able to beat out former collaborator Lady Gaga with her song "Shallow" from A Star is Born (2018). At least, Warren had a song on that film's soundtrack as well.


11. "I'm Standing With You" by Chrissy Metz 


If "Because You Loved Me" has undercurrents of maternal love to it, then this song is a tsunami of motherly affection. It is Diane's second song for a faith-based film after "Compass" for the movie Heaven is for Real (2014) was unable to secure a nomination. This song was done for the film, Breakthrough (2019), about a mother watching her son fight for his life on a hospital bed after a tragic accident. Chrissy imbues the song with everything it needs and more, and her stunning Oscar performance was only partially squandered by a bizarre directorial choice to not have the performer be given a proper introduction. Much like how the songwriter has never received a proper Oscar. 


12. "Lo Si (Seen)" by Laura Pausini 


The Life Ahead (2020), set in Italy, brings together a former prostitute who now tends to the children of other sex workers with a black street-orphan who is forced to be taken under her care. Through the time they spend together, they come to recognize the humanity in one another's existence, previously clouded by their own pride and prejudices. It is a familiar tale, but nonetheless, a beautiful and heartwarming one, especially when brought to life by the likes of screen legend Sophia Loren and phenomenal newcomer Ibrahima Gueye. The original English version of the song is written by Diane Warren, while accomplished singer-songwriter Laura Pausini co-wrote the Italian version. Pausini has additionally recorded the song in several different languages. In a year and a half of such global torment, a song such as this fits right at home. So many have felt unseen and forgotten in the midst of a global pandemic, so many left behind by society, by government, by sheer human failure. To hear Pausini's tender vibrato assure them, assure us, that we are seen and loved is truly a musical gift. The lyrics and melody are simple, as are so many of Warren's greatest achievements, and they certainly connect to the film's story. However, what Warren has on her side this year more than any other is that this song speaks to the universal here and now. We are all trying to be recognized and validated more than ever before because of the distinct sense of loneliness and disconnect that we've had to experience. It's not that they should be awarded the Oscar because they lucked out on the year and time the song got released. Nay, they should win because the song will continue to speak to our deep-seated desire for intimacy long after we are able to hug and congregate together again without these particular fears and trepidations. 


There is no irony lost on the fact that, if Diane Warren does claim her victory this evening at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony, it will be for a song that is at its very core about recognition, appreciation and acceptance. Regardless, her music will continue to have a substantial and substantive impact on film history for the foreseeable future—best of luck, Diane. We see you.