Diane Warren thinks ‘The Journey’ deserves to win Oscar over all of her other nominated songs

Diane Warren is far too familiar with being the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to winning the Oscar for Best Original Song.

The legendary songwriter nabbed her 16th Oscar nomination this year, breaking her own record as the most nominated woman in the category (it’s also her eighth consecutive nomination since 2017). Her song, “The Journey,” from The Six Triple Eight, is in many ways a reflection of her own journey with the Academy Awards.

“First and foremost, it’s the song that that reflects the 6,888 battalion and these women’s journey,” Warren tells Entertainment Weekly of the Netflix movie directed by Tyler Perry. “But I also could totally relate to it because my Oscar journey started five decades ago. That’s a lot of f—ing years. 1988 was my first nomination, for ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.’ I’ve been nominated in every decade since and haven’t won yet. But it’s all part of the journey. And actually, I do love the journey of it. It’s really fun.”

On the list of her prior nominations, there are some true classics, including “Because You Loved Me,” “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” and “How Do I Live?” But of all 16 nominations, Warren believes this is her most award-worthy song yet.

“This would be definitely the most deserving to me,” she reflects. “There’s been a couple, back in the day. But honestly, it sounds really cliche, but it’s not a cliche, because it is an amazing honor to be nominated. They only choose five songs, and then you’re chosen by your peers, who are the best of the best. You just hope that people listen to the song. If they listen to this one, it’s a pretty good song. I’m really proud of it.”

Part of what has made Warren such a prolific songwriter is her ability to pair the perfect artist with the right song. In this case, that’s H.E.R., who has won the Oscar for Best Original Song herself back in 2021 for “Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah.

“I always say that I’m a casting director when I do a song for a movie,” Warren says. “The artist always has to be authentic to the movie and the song. It’s two things that are super important, and if one of those things don’t work, it doesn’t work.”

Warren and Gabriella Wilson (singer-songwriter H.E.R.’s real name) have a long history that precedes even their 2021 face-off for the Oscar. “I met her when she was a kid, when she was like 14 or 15,” Warren explains. “I was blown away by how great she was even at that age. We were going to do something, and it didn’t work out. Then, at the 2021 Oscars, we were both nominated. She ended up beating me that year, but we reconnected.”

“Later, she reached out to me and said, ‘I think we should work together,'” Warren remembers of their relationship. “I’m like, ‘Come on over,’ because I had just written ‘The Journey,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, my god, she’s the perfect artist for this song. She’s so right for this song and for this movie.'”

Warren’s instincts were clearly spot on. So right, in fact, that H.E.R. recorded the song the same day she first heard it. “I played her the song on the piano, and she was touched by it,” Warren remembers. “She related that to her life, the journey she’s been on. There’s so many layers to the song — like our journeys came back together after 12 years. She’s 27 now.

“She recorded it that day,” Warren continues. “The song really spoke to her and her life, so she recorded the piano, the guitar, and sang one of the best vocals I’ve ever heard in my life. She heard it for the first time, left, laid down the basic track, and the vocal was done on that song. It was just magical. I don’t know who else would have done that song justice.”

Everything about Warren’s experience writing “The Journey” could be described as magical. Typically, filmmakers give Warren a script or show her a rough cut of the film before she writes a song. But her experience on The Six Triple Eight was unlike any she’d had before.

Producer Keri Selig ran into Warren at an event and pulled her aside into a room to pitch her on writing a song for the film while it was still in pre-production. “We found this quiet room,” Warren remembers. “She showed me the sizzle reel of The Six Triple Eight and goes, ‘I can’t get you a script yet, but I can walk you through the movie.'”

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“She walked me through it scene by scene to where I saw the movie in my head,” Warren continues. ” That’s never happened — writing a song that way. The next day I went to my [writing] room, and I just started playing those chords and magic happened. That chorus just came with the chords. I wrote that whole chorus right there. It doesn’t usually happen like that. And I knew I had something inspired. I just had to make the rest of the song live up to that chorus.”

Now, Warren is hoping Academy voters find the song equally as inspired. If the 16th time is the charm, Warren can scarcely imagine how she’ll feel in the moment. “I don’t even know how I’d react,” she says. “I’d have to be conscious. I’d probably faint. I’m not going to lie, it would be amazing. Especially for this song. It’s the journey — there’s a lot of levels to the song that are really special. And that would make it more special if that happened.”