Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has won an Academy Honorary Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and three consecutive Billboard Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year from 1997 to 1999. She first gained recognition for her work on DeBarge's 1985 single "Rhythm of the Night". By the late 1980s, she joined the record label EMI, where she became the first songwriter in the history of Billboard magazine to have written seven hit songs, each recorded by different artists, on the charts at the same time, prompting EMI's UK Chairman Peter Reichardt to call her "the most important songwriter in the world". Warren has received 17 nominations for Academy Awards, the most of any individual without a win. She received an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2022.
Warren has written nine number-one songs and 33 top-10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 including "If I Could Turn Back Time" (Cher, 1989), "Look Away" (Chicago, 1988), "Because You Loved Me" (Celine Dion, 1996), "How Do I Live" (LeAnn Rimes, 1997), "When I See You Smile" (Bad English, 1989), and "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (Aerosmith, 1998). She has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been rated the third most successful female artist in the UK, leading her to win the Ivor Novello Award and Special International Award in 2008.
Warren founded the publishing company Realsongs, through which she holds the masters of her work. Her debut studio album was released on August 27, 2021.
Warren, the youngest of three daughters, was born to David, an insurance salesman, and Flora Warren (née Bressler), in the Los Angeles community of Van Nuys, where she said she felt misunderstood and "alienated" as a 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 music and dreamed of performing on the radio herself. She was also influenced by music her parents and her sisters would play. She began writing music when she was 11 but took a more serious approach at 14, commenting "music saved me." Warren has said that her mother asked her to give up her dream of a songwriting career and take a secretarial job. Her father continued to believe in her and encouraged her. In addition, he bought her a 12-string guitar and a metal shed for her to practice and took her to music auditions. 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.
On the February 12, 2016, edition of All Things Considered, Warren said that she had been molested at age 12 and had later experienced sexual harassment and assault by a sound engineer during her working career.
Warren's first hit was "Solitaire", which Laura Branigan took to No. 7 in the US pop charts in 1983.
She's actually more like the Emily Dickinson of Pop. As in the case of the great nineteenth-century reclusive New England poet known for her simple yet eloquent verses, Warren leads a life focused almost entirely on her art.
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 showcasing 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 endeavors. 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 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.
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, Diane Warren Presents Love Songs, which includes several of her hits.
Warren wrote three songs for Carrie Underwood's debut album, Some Hearts (2005) that were "Lessons Learned", "Whenever You Remember" and the title track, 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" was sung by Jade Ewen and achieved fifth place, the best for the UK since 2002.
In 2010, Warren partnered with Avon Products as a celebrity judge for Avon Voices, Avon's global online singing talent search for women and songwriting competition for men and women. For the contest, Warren wrote a special anthem which was recorded by the finalists and produced by Humberto Gatica.
Warren has been recognized six times as ASCAP Songwriter of the Year and four times as 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".