Diane Eve Warren (born
September 7, 1956 in
Van Nuys,
California
) is an American
country and pop music
singer-songwriter. Her
songs have received six
Academy Award nominations, four
Golden Globe nominations, and seven
Grammy Award nominations, including one
win. She was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.
Her success in the US has been paralleled in the UK, where she has
been rated the thirty-fifth most successful songwriter in singles
chart history as well as the third most successful female.
She was the first songwriter in the history of
Billboard to have seven hits, all
by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time. Warren
owns her own publishing company, Realsongs, which gives her control
over her compositions. Meanwhile, her songs have been featured in
more than 70 films or TV-shows listed on the
Internet Movie Database.
Early life
She said she felt misunderstood and "alien" as a
Jewish kid growing up in Van Nuys, California. She
says she was rebellious as a child and she was diagnosed with
tone deafness at the age of five
Warren told NPR's Scott Simon that she got into trouble and ran
away as a teen but returned because she missed her cat. She began
writing music when she was 14. "Music saved me," she said. Warren
also has said that her own mother asked her to give up her dream of
a songwriting career and take a secretarial job. However, her
father continued to believe in her and encouraged her. She wrote
the song "Because You Loved Me" as a tribute to her father for his
encouragement.
Career
Her first hit was "
Solitaire", which
Laura Branigan took to No. 7 in the US pop
charts in 1983.
Most of Warren's songs deal with romantic themes. In spite of that, she has never been married and says she has never been in love and does not enjoy dating.
In 1998, her company Realsongs and its international partner, EMI
Music Publishing, distributed "A Passion For Music," a six-CD boxed
that showcased the songwriter. EMI Music's London office assisted
in distributing 1,200 copies of the box set. The compilation was
not commercially available, and was primarily targeted to the film
and television industry for potential use in soundtracks and other
commercial endeavors. Later that same year, she presented "An
Evening With Diane Warren", will present the songwriter in the
intimate (110 seats) confines of the Bluebird, famed home to
songwriters.
The Diane Warren Foundation, in conjunction with the
ASCAP Foundation and the VH1 Save the Music
Foundation created a joint initiative, beginning in 2000, called
Music in the Schools. The initiative provides sheet music, band
arrangements, folios, and method books to each of the schools that
are already recipients of musical instruments from the
VH1 Save the Music
Foundation.
In 2004 (2005 or even 2006 in some countries), she released a
compilation album of love songs, titled
Diane Warren Presents Love
Songs, which includes her most notable love songs, such as
"
Because You Loved Me" and
"
Un-Break My Heart". The track
listing slightly varies in different countries. In the CD,
Trisha Yearwood's version of "
How Do I Live" is included, not the pop
version by
LeAnn Rimes, possibly because
Rimes already had a song in the collection, "
Can't Fight the Moonlight".
Monica's "
For You I Will", however, is
notably missing from the collection. Recently, Diane has been
dubbed "Queen of the Ballad". She was recently in the studio with
singer/songwriter
Ashanti to help the Grammy
Award winning artist with the production of her new album
The Declaration, which was released on
June 3, 2008. She is also hoping to write
songs for
Leona Lewis's sophomore album
in the next few months.
On May 18, 2009, on the "
The
Oprah Winfrey Show", her song "
Note to
God", produced by
David Foster, is
performed by
Charice to whom she declares
"you proved way beyond what I could have hope for, that was an
amazing performance".
Also in
2009 she co-wrote the song for the United Kingdom's
entry in the Eurovision Song Contest with
Andrew Lloyd Webber. The
song is called "
It's My Time".
It achieved 5th place, the best for the UK since 2002.
Awards
ASCAP
Grammy Awards
Selective list of nominations and awards for songs from
films
Academy Awards
Golden Globe Awards
References
-
http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp;jsessionid=893547D2EC56123658029684C2B63941?curTime=1252230091858
- http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/28728
- http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/Winners/Results.aspx
- http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C183
- http://britishhitsongwriters.com/
- Retrieved 4 October 2007.
- Nash, Alanna (March 1998), "She writes the songs that make the
whole world sing". Good Housekeeping. 226
(3):26
- Borzillo, Carrie; "Warren Drives a Hit-Writing Machine: LA
Songwriter Wants to Develop Artists Too" in Billboard;
April 22,
1995; p. 58
- STARK, PHYLLIS (June 03, 2000), "Thanks To 'How Do I Live,'
Diane Warren Finds A Home For Her Songs In Nashville".
Billboard. 112 (23):55
- http://www.nerve.com/screeningroom/music/dianewarren/
- Sexton, Paul (March 14, 1998), "Warren showcases her
`passion'". Billboard. 110 (11):26
- No byline (August 2000), "ASCAP, Diane Warren Foundation, and
Warner Bros. Help `Save the Music'". Teaching Music.
8 (1):12
- http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/Winners/Results.aspx
-
http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp;jsessionid=893547D2EC56123658029684C2B63941?curTime=1252230091858
- http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/28728
External links
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