Diane Warren took the Oscar win in stride, writing on social media after the ceremony: “At least I’m consistent! And I set a new record tonight!! But you know what, I’ll come back if you have me!!!”
Warren hasn’t been nominated for Best Original Song since 2016, but this winning streak effectively means she could be nominated again in 2027, whether or not the world has any idea what she’ll come up with this year. Meanwhile, she has now been nominated in the category a total of 17 times without a win, which finally puts her on top of the record for the most nominations yet to win an Oscar.
Of course, Warren isn’t completely without an Oscar, having won an Honorary Academy Award at the 2022 Governors Awards, but that hasn’t diminished her eagerness to win the competition trophy, nor has the Academy’s eagerness to put her in a position of near-miss diminished over the years.
At least she wasn’t unexpected this year. This is because the pop smash “Golden”, which topped the “KPop Demon Hunters” hit chart, was predicted by all the predictors to win the award.
At least if Warren had won this year, he wouldn’t have had to clumsily use music to stage a second person waiting to speak at the microphone. Warren famously rarely uses co-writers, making her a unicorn among modern tuners.
Warren is scheduled to sing the ballad “Dear Me,” which she wrote for the documentary film about her life, “Diane Warren: Relentless,” and will be sung by Ke$ha.
When recently asked by the New York Times whether winning the prestigious Oscar would make up for not winning the standard Academy Award, Warren replied, “You know, I haven’t won a competitive award yet. And I’m a competitive person. I don’t take it for granted. But yes, I still want to win. My honorary Oscar is very lonely. He likes playing with my cat Rabbit.”
She said she was tied with her friend for the most nominations and most losses without a win when she attended the ceremony.
“It’s not validation,” she told the Times. “It would just be fun. And now I guess I keep breaking my own records. Right now I’m tied with my friend Greg Russell. We’ve both lost 16 times. But I’ve never taken awards as recognition. Business is recognition. If people like the song, that’s recognition. Who wouldn’t want to win? But you can’t live or die from it. It’s out of your control. What I can control is to do the best job I can.” ”
Her previous tie, her friend Greg P. Russell, a 16-time nominated sound mixer, has to settle for second place in this unique competition.
Warren enters the final stage and realizes, “I know I’m an underdog, sure, or an undercat. Can I be an undercat? I’m a cat person. They’re fast and they’ve got claws.”
Warren long ago set the record for being the woman with the most nominations in the Best Original Song category. If he is nominated again next year, he will have the second most points for a songwriter, behind only Johnny Mercer, who received 18 points in his career. He still has a few moments left to beat Sammy Cahn, who scored 26 goals, to become the most nominated player in history.
