Diane Warren talks Oscars, working with Gaga

[Teletubby 137,255]

Diane Warren recently received her 13th Oscar nomination for the song “Somehow You Do” from the film Four Good Days.

Warren pulled an all-nighter with her friends the day before the nominations.
Diane:”I stayed up all night and counted the minutes until the nominations. I thought I was screwed, because two songs I didn’t think were going to get nominated were , and some prognosticators had us 14th on their lists, but we were the last name they read out. Honestly, it was one of the best moments of my life.”

You’re such a legend that you can write a song for a movie and then go out and cast the A-list singer you like.
Diane: ”They have to agree—but usually they do.[...] Lady Gaga with “Till It Happens to You” [from The Hunting Ground]. There was no better artist for that song than Gaga. In her life she was a survivor of sexual assault, so she was an authentic voice for that.”

That was such a powerful performance at the Oscars.
Diane: ”That was one of the most amazing performances I’ve ever seen. Just the power of that. I was sitting in the audience and all the biggest stars in the world were wiping tears from their eyes. I was like, wow, what a moment. That was the year I thought I would win. [Laughs] That performance knocked everybody out, then it went to commercial break, and then it was, “And the winner is…” F*ck! But what a performance. I don’t know how she hit those high notes full-voice. And the bravery. That was before a lot of people were talking about sexual assault.”

”Gaga had just given an interview at the time with Howard Stern about being sexually assaulted, and we had talked about collaborating together, and when I was writing the song I was like, “Oh my god… Gaga. This is her song.” I called her and played it for her, and she was crying. And then she sang the sh*t out of it.”

There are artists like Kanye West, who credit up to 25 writers on a song.
Diane:”I know. I don’t get it! What do they do?! You look at some songs and see 9, 13, 20 writers credited on a song and think, “What did they do?” They must have a hell of a time splitting that sh*t [publishing] up. I suppose they sample a lot of stuff, which adds a bunch on there.”

I’m curious what songwriters think about Ed Sheeran, because he’s been accused of ripping off a bunch of his hit songs at this point.
Diane: ”He’s really good. Listen, there are only so many notes. Sometimes I’m writing something and then realize I’m ripping myself off. It happens.”

source

[Pennywise 35,841]

36 minutes ago, Teletubby said:

That was the year I thought I would win. [Laughs] That performance knocked everybody out, then it went to commercial break, and then it was, “And the winner is…” F*ck!

traumatica indeed 

[Night Vision 3,050]

Thank you Diane for this iconic gif

[nATAH 43,192]

i kinda love her

remember when gaga shushed her during an interview? iconic

[Borisapillar 8,287]

She is a great sport. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. You gotta respect her talent and earnest attitude.

[Meat 18,962]

The amount of #1 HITS this woman has written is insane. She deserves all the praise.

[Wet Fire 6,714]

She has some of the most iconic songs in history to her name. Truly a legend 

[Jester 6,285]

Now I’m kinda happy that Gaga didn’t win with this one, but with the one she actually wrote instead 

[Guillaume Hamon 6,027]

20 minutes ago, Jester said:

Now I’m kinda happy that Gaga didn’t win with this one, but with the one she actually wrote instead 

I mean she did part of the arrangements which is considered songwriting I believe. And then she did the vocal production + some lyrics change.

Now it was Warren's baby for sure. Gaga came when the song was ready and essentially sublimed it.

[EGOT2027 10,807]

as disappointed (and shocked) as we were back then that she didn’t win, it really was for the best. her shallow win was so iconic (i also feel like many sorta saw it as her oscar for ASIB in general), and it wouldn’t have been the same if she already had an oscar. plus i feel like it would be a tad awkward for gaga to constantly be soooooo excited to have won an oscar for a song like TIHTY, and a little part of me worries her excitement for winning would have come off a bit like “why is she making a song about sexual assault all about her blah blah blah.” (like imagine if she had won and gone on jimmy kimmel a few days later like she did when she actually won…if she was acting the same way for winning for TIHTY as she did for winning for shallow, it would’ve been weird tbh.) PLUS it seems clear gaga didn’t have much of a role in writing this song which caused a bit of controversy back then, and i would hate for her first oscar to be “deniable” in any way.

 

i didn’t want her to win an acting oscar just yet, but i was devastated when she wasn’t nominated for gucci. maybe one day we’ll look back on that though and say it was for the best just like the TIHTY loss definitely was

[whoresup 1,895]

It’s a travesty that she’s never won the Oscar. Not winning in 2016 was a huge shock. 

[Meat 18,962]

1 hour ago, Guillaume Hamon said:

I mean she did part of the arrangements which is considered songwriting I believe. And then she did the vocal production + some lyrics change.

Now it was Warren's baby for sure. Gaga came when the song was ready and essentially sublimed it.

In fact Gaga is the only credited producer on the song. She produced it all herself and definitely deserved the nomination. 

[Guillaume Hamon 6,027]

8 hours ago, Meat said:

In fact Gaga is the only credited producer on the song. She produced it all herself and definitely deserved the nomination. 

I think each academy has its own rule and some required a certain percentage of the track's songwriting credits so even with big merit for the production part you still miss nominations...

It sucks, producing's key as well...