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| Diane Warren |
She thinks the best way to pay homage to Diane Warren is talking about her life and her career.
Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter, musician and record producer. She rose to prominence in 1983, and has since written songs for and co-written songs with multiple singers, as well as for several films.
Warren has written nine number-one songs and 32 top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Additionally, two of the top 13 hits in the Hot 100's 57-year history were composed by her.
Warren's career was jump-started with the success in 1985 of Rhythm of the Night by Debarge and catapulted in the late 1980s shortly after joining forces with the UK music company EMI when Warren became the first songwriter in the history of Billboard magazine to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time prompting the UK's former Chairman of EMI Music Publishing Peter Reichardt to credit her as the most important songwriter in the world. She has been rated the third most successful female artist in the UK.
More information: The Diane Warren Foundation
Warren has won a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three consecutive Billboard Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year, and has been nominated for eleven Academy Awards.
She has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her UK success saw her win an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors when she received the Special International Award in 2008.
Warren owns a publishing company, Realsongs, which gives her control over her compositions.
More information: Instagram
Warren, the youngest of three daughters, was born to David, an insurance salesman, and Flora Warren, in the Los Angeles community of Van Nuys, where she said she felt misunderstood and alienated as a Jewish child growing up. Her family's surname Warren was originally Wolfberg, but her father changed the name because he wanted it to sound less Jewish.
Warren says she was rebellious as a child and told NPR's Scott Simon that she got into trouble and ran away as a teen but returned because she missed her cat.
As a child, Warren loved listening to the radio and dreamed of performing on the radio herself. She was also influenced by music through her parents and her sisters, who would play music. She began writing music when she was 11 but took a more serious approach at 14, commenting music saved me.
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| Diane Warren & Renée Zellweger |
She wrote Celine Dion's 1996 song Because You Loved Me as a tribute to her father for his encouragement.
She attended Los Angeles Pierce College and graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1978, but largely considered her education a waste as she focused most of her time on improving her songwriting skills instead of on her education.
The original name for her publishing company, Realsongs, was Warren Piece because War and Peace was already taken.
In 1998, Realsongs and its international partner, EMI Music Publishing, distributed A Passion For Music, a six-CD box set that showcased her music. EMI Music's London office assisted in distributing 1,200 copies of the box set, primarily to the film and television industry for consideration in soundtracks and other commercial endeavours. It was not marketed to consumers.
As of 2011, Warren's music has appeared in the soundtracks of over sixty films. She was awarded a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.
More information: Twitter
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, Warren released a compilation album of love songs, titled Diane Warren Presents Love Songs, which includes several of her award-winning hits.
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| Diane Warren & Lady Gaga |
Warren wrote three songs for Carrie Underwood's debut album, Some Hearts (2005) that were Lessons Learned, Whenever You Remember and the title track, the latter originally written for Marshall Crenshaw.
In 2009, Warren co-wrote the United Kingdom's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest with Andrew Lloyd Webber the song It's My Time. It was sung by Jade Ewen and achieved 5th place, the best for the U.K. since 2002.
In 2010, Warren partnered with Avon Products as a celebrity judge for Avon Voices, Avon's first ever global online singing talent search for women and songwriting competition for men and women. For the competition, Warren wrote a special anthem, which was recorded by the finalists and produced by Humberto Gatica.
More information: San Diego Union Tribune
Warren has been recognized six times ASCAP Songwriter of the Year and four times Billboard's Songwriter of the Year.
In 2012, Warren wrote the song Counterfeit for Tulisa's debut solo album, The Female Boss.
Warren wrote Paloma Faith's 2014 song Only Love Can Hurt Like This.
Warren's success in the U.S. has been paralleled in the U.K., where she has been rated the third most successful female artist. Peter Reichardt, former Chairman of EMI Music Publishing UK, credited her as the most important songwriter in the world.
Warren is the first songwriter in the history of Billboard magazine to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time.
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| LeAnn Rimes & Diane Warren |
She has had an even bigger success on the U.S. Adult Contemporary charts, where sixteen of her songs have gone to #1, and overall more than 40 songs have hit the top ten on that chart. In the U.K., Warren has had three #1 hits, and more than 20 top ten hits.
She has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Warren has never married, and does not think of herself as a person of commitment. In interviews, she has said that she believes that her lack of a romantic life makes her more peculiar as a songwriter. She was in a relationship with songwriter and record producer Guy Roche that ended in 1992 and claims she has not had another relationship since, commenting I've never been in love like in my songs. I'm not like normal people. I'm no good at relationships. I draw drama to me -it's the Jew in me.
Although she considers herself to be cynical regarding romance, Warren does not let this affect her songwriting and prefers to write alone, commenting When I write with other people, the experience is different. You have to compromise, which I have problems with. I'd rather listen to my own mind.
More information: Gold Derby
In a 2000 interview, Warren explained that she never let go of music despite experiencing rejections, depression and poverty.
In 1994, Warren's house was damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, causing her to be miserable and homeless, drifting from hotels to rental houses. She has stated that therapy helped her with songwriting. She has also revealed that she works 12–16 hours a day, always takes her keyboard whenever she travels and is ...more crazy and intense than I was at 20...
Warren does not usually allow anyone into her Hollywood Hills office, which she describes as a cluttered, airless room… nothing has been moved or cleaned for 17 years because she is superstitious and prefers to think of that room as her secret world. In that room, Warren records melodies with a tape recorder, on which she plays them again and chooses the songs she likes the most. But in a 2016 interview with CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent, Ben Tracy, she allowed part of the interview to be taped in the office.
More information: Sound on Sound
What makes a great song -you don't put it into words.
You feel it. The perfect lyric. The perfect melody.
It makes you feel something.
Diane Warren
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