When was Diane Warren first nominated for Oscar? Singer reacts to longest losing streak in history of award show 

Acclaimed songwriter Diane Warren's hopes of winning her first competitive Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2 were dashed as she once again fell short in the Best Original Song category. Known for iconic hits like Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time and Celine Dion’s Because You Loved Me, Warren earned her latest nomination for Journey, the original song from Tyler Perry’s historical drama Six Triple Eight on Netflix.

Warren lost the Oscar to Camille and Clément Ducol and Jacques Audiard who won the award for their work on the track El Mal from Audiard’s Emilia Pérez. With the loss though, Warren has scripted a historical achievement - the songwriter who was first nominated for an Oscar for Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now in 1987 now has the longest losing streak in the history of the Academy Awards.

Diane Warren was in high spirits after her loss though. She spoke to Variety after the Academy Award winners had been announced, and displayed her grit and resolve. She declared,

“I’m consistent as f—k…I’m the Terminator of the Oscars, I’ll be back. That’s in my Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. I’m coming back. You can’t get rid of me.”

With steely-eyed determination, Warren promised that she wouldn’t stop working. She said,

“This isn’t going to slow me down…I thought I had a chance this time. It didn’t go that way, but I’m still here.”

---

Diane Warren’s Oscars nominations

Diane Warren has been nominated for an Oscar a total of 16 times without winning a single trophy. The only other person to hold this record has been Hollywood sound mixer Greg P. Russell, who was also nominated for an Oscar 16 times without a single win, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Warren’s first Oscar loss was to Dirty Dancing’s iconic Time of My Life in 1987. According to Business Insider, her second nomination was in 1996 for Up Close & Personal’s Because You Loved Me, which was performed by Celine Dion. Beginning in 1996, Warren was nominated for 4 consecutive Academy Awards till 1999, when Gloria Estefan and *NSYNC performed Music of My Heart was up for an award.

Followed by a nomination in 2001, Business Insider notes that Warren was then nominated thirteen years later in 2014 for Beyond the Lights’ Grateful which lost to John Legend’s Glory. Followed by another nomination, Warren received a total of eight consecutive Oscar nods starting with Stand Up for Something in 2017.

Last year, Warren’s The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot had lost out to Greta Gerwig’s award-winning film Barbie’s What Was I Made For?

Earlier on the Oscars red carpet, Diane Warren had spoken about her journey at the Academy Awards with the Associated Press. Warren emphasized that her work on the Six Triple Eight was the best work she had done, saying,

“I think it’s one of my best songs I ever wrote, not even just for a movie, but in my life. You know, my journey getting here to the Oscars, well, it started in [1987] with ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’…for five decades I’ve been nominated every decade. And with this song, it’s the, you know, eighth one in a row. And I don’t take any of it for granted. Like I said, it’s not easy to be nominated for an Oscar.”

Despite her competitive Oscar losses, Diane Warren has been recognized by the Academy for her longstanding contribution to music. In 2022, Warren was presented an honorary Oscar at the Governor’s Awards by her frequent collaborator and superstar Cher. While receiving the honor, Warren joked while looking to the heavens and clutching the award,

“Mom, I finally found a man”

Continuing, she said,

“I’ve waited 34 years to say this, I'd like to thank the academy...Sometimes people say how does it feel to lose 13 times. Wait, I say what do you mean, I've won 13 times. Because out of the hundreds of songs and movies every year, hundreds of movies, hundreds of songs, 13 times my songs were picked to be one of only five songs chosen.”

With her determination and refusal to stand down, Diane Warren has made it clear that the world has not seen the end of what she has to offer. Here’s hoping that she comes back to the Oscars next year and kicks up a storm.