“It’s an honor just to be nominated” is an axiom repeated endlessly each awards season. Few know this sentiment better than the songwriter Diane Warren.
This year, Ms. Warren received her 17th Academy Award nomination for best original song. The most nominated woman in that category, her past nods have included hits like “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” performed by Aerosmith for the film “Armageddon,” and “Because You Loved Me,” performed by Celine Dion for “Up Close and Personal.”
While she has collected many other accolades — two Golden Globes, a Grammy, an Emmy and even an honorary Oscar, given to recognize “extraordinary lifetime achievement” — the competitive original song award has remained elusive. But she has kept her eye on the prize, continuing to campaign for Oscars, a process that requires immense financial and emotional commitment.
Ms. Warren’s nomination this year might be her most meta yet: It is for “Dear Me,” an emotional ballad that she wrote for “Diane Warren: Relentless,” a documentary about her own life and career.
The film recounts Ms. Warren’s tumultuous childhood in Los Angeles, her Aspergers diagnosis (“My superpower,” she said in an interview) and her career highs and lows. It paints a portrait of a woman who is, as the title suggests, relentless. “Dear Me” is addressed to Ms. Warren’s younger self, telling her that “it’ll all get better soon.”
Ahead of the 2026 Oscars, Ms. Warren spoke with The New York Times on a video call about the meaning of awards, the campaign circus and cats. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How are you feeling going into this year’s Oscars?
I loved watching the Oscars with my parents. It was the coolest show in the world. And here I am, nominated for my 17th, and nine in a row. If it was this song — up against all these giant movies, and here’s this little documentary about a songwriter from Van Nuys — if this was the one to finally win, it would be pretty cool.
This song is so personal. Does that make this nomination feel different?
It’s always great to be nominated because they only choose five songs. I stay up all night waiting to hear if my song is named. It’s not easy to get nominated for an Oscar, and I never lose sight of that. But this one is different. When you watch the documentary, you see that it shows us waiting up all night for another nomination, so this is like life imitating art imitating life.
There’s a scene in the “Relentless” documentary showing you and your friends staying up, waiting to hear the nominations. Is that a tradition?
Yeah, this is kind of a tradition. It starts out like a pizza party with some of my friends, and I call it a sleepless sleepover. We stay up all night, and we literally are counting down the minutes.
You won an honorary Oscar in 2022. Did that take some of the pressure off?
Well, you know, I still haven’t won the competitive one. And I’m a competitive person. It’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. He hangs out with Rabbit, my cat, but he prefers to have an Oscar buddy.
Do you feel like you need that validation from the motion picture academy?
It’s not validation. It would just be fun. And now I just keep beating my own record, I guess. Right now, I’m tied with my friend Greg Russell; we both have lost 16 times. But I’ve never taken awards as validation. The work is validation. When people love the songs, that’s validation. Who doesn’t want to win, right? But you can’t live and die by that because it’s out of your control. What’s in my control is to do the best work I can.
Awards campaigning can be grueling and expensive. Does that aspect ever get exhausting?
I have fun with it. I’m basically an extroverted introvert. I’m happier just being in my room with a piano or a guitar or both. But this makes me get out in the world. I love going to all these events. It’s work, but I love it.
The documentary suggests that you’ll never retire from songwriting. Do you think you’ll ever retire from awards campaigning?
No, as long as I have songs I’m proud of. I’m always going to support my own work. With something like this, all I’m doing is supporting my work, getting it heard and getting it seen.
With all the prediction websites now, do you ever check your odds of winning?
I’ve looked at some of that. I think it’s probably a three-horse race at this point with “Sinners,” “KPop Demon Hunters” and me. I am the little engine that maybe can. I know I’m the underdog, for sure — or undercat. Can I be an undercat? I’m a cat person. They’re fast and they’ve got claws.
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