Hollywood's Most Nominated Songwriter Just Lost Her 18th Oscar

Songwriting legend Diane Warren failed to pick up her first Academy Award after eighteen nominations. Instead, the Best Original Song award was picked up by "Golden" from K-Pop Demon Hunters.

The musician has been writing original songs in search of an Oscar for almost four decades; she received her first nomination for "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" from Mannequin in 1987.

This year, Warren was nominated for her song "Dear Me", which was featured in a very personal documentary about the songwriter's life and career. The song, which was performed by American pop singer Kesha, is the closing track to Diane Warren: Relentless.

This was Warren's ninth consecutive nomination; she hasn't missed in the Best Original Song category since 2017. Such an impressive feat actually broke the record for the most consecutive nominations, which had previously been held by Sammy Cahn.

In combination with the personal, intimate nature of Warren's documentary, this would accomplishment have made it the perfect opportunity to finally reward Warren for her contributions to music. Unfortunately, K-Pop Demon Hunters was simply too fierce of a competitor for her to overcome.

Warren's hits haven't just been critically renowned—she's also had plenty of No. 1 hits that have sold millions of copies cumulitively. She penned tracks such as Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", Faith Hill's "There You'll Be", and Lady Gaga's "Till It Happens to You".

Despite coming so close to victory on so many occasions, Warren still hasn't won a competitive Oscar. She was given an honorary award in 2022 at the Governors' Awards, but remains unsuccessful at the main ceremony.

"t’s amazing to have the honorary Oscar — that’s harder to get than the competitive. I don’t take that for granted. But, yeah, I still want to win. My honorary Oscar gets really lonely. He wants a friend." (via NYT)