17 March 2011

Diane Warren: the composer

Diane Eve Warren, popularly known as Diane Warren, was born in Van Nuys, California on September 7, 1956.

Her career started upon collaborating with producer Jack White in 1983, giving birth to songs Solitaire and Hot Night, both of which were recorded by Laura Branigan. Her songs produced many Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. In the late 80s though, Warren separated ways with White and pursued her own publishing company, the Real Songs.

She wrote more than 1,000 songs totaling to about $20 million in royalties each year, 90 of which were US Billboard Top Ten hits, including 38 that have topped the charts.

Warren is superstitious. The room in the publishing house where she writes songs has not been cleaned since the 90s. She didn’t even clean her ‘secret world’ even after the big LA earthquake. The Cave only has two keyboards, 1980s posters of Cher and Michael Bolton, and cassettes in it.

She is the only female writer in history to be named ASCAP’s Writer of the Year three times and the first songwriter to have seven songs in the US Billboard Hot 100 sung by different artists simultaneously. For this, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

If she comes up with a good song in a place where she can’t record it, she calls her home and sings the song to her answering machine. And when she writes a song, she does not contain herself with an artist in mind. She cannot read music, but she can finish writing a song in a week.

In the UK, she is regarded the 35th most successful songwriter in singles chart history as well as the 3rd most successful female.

She is a Jewish diagnosed with tone deafness at 5. She ran away when she was a teen but returned after missing her cat. She began writing music at 14 even though her mother wished only for a secretarial job for her. She wrote the song Because You Loved Me as a tribute to her father who had continued to be behind her despite.

Warren has never been married. She has never been in love and she does not enjoy dating.

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 provided 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.

She released a compilation album of love songs in 2004, titled Diane Warren Presents Love Songs, remaining true to her being the “Queen of the Ballad”. She wrote the song Note to God, which was produced by David Foster and performed by Charice last May 18, 2009 on the The Oprah Winfrey Show.

“Songwriting is a skill and takes practice, patience, and perseverance. There is a lot of rejection in the songwriting business…” -Warren

SINGERS WHO HAVE COVERED HER SONGS
Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Patti Labelle, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Estefan, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Aerosmith, Aaron Neville, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Starship, Ricky Martin, Johnny Mathis, Mary J. Blige, N’Sync, Elton John, Roberta Flack, Roy Orbison, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Reba McEntire, Enrique Iglesias, LeAnn Rimes, Aswad, Ace of Base, Ginuwine, Aaliyah, The Cult, Sugarbabes, Roy Orbison, Daniel Bedingfield, Uncle Kracker, Gavin DeGraw, JoJo, American Idol, Macy Gray, Anita Baker, Jamelia, Il Divo Anthony Callea

CHARITIES
AIDS Project Los Angeles (Buddy For Life ), PETA (honorary committee member), Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance (key donor ), David S. Warren Weekly Entertainment Series (founder), Jewish Home for the Aging, Save the Music campaign, “Music of My Heart”/ASCAP Foundation, Music Education Project

SOME OF HER SONGS
FOR YOU I WILL This pop ballad is about a person pledging love and devotion to someone. It ranked #13 on Top Hot 100 Hits of 1997.
HOW DO I LIVE Intended to be a single for the 1997 action blockbuster Con Air, the song was sung by LeAnn Rimes with Faye and Real (F.I.R.) and Trisha Yearwood.
I DON’T WANT TO MISS A THING If it wasn’t for this song, Aerosmith could not claim a #1 single on the US Billboard Hot 100 after 28 years.
NOTHING’S GOING TO STOP US NOW Written with Albert Hammond, the song is actually about the latter’s love story with his 7-year girlfriend. “It’s almost like they’ve stopped me from marrying this woman for seven years, and they haven’t succeeded. They’re not gonna stop me doing it.”
RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT This is the song that made Dianne Warren popular in the music biz, and the biggest hit of the American R&B band DeBarge.
BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME This song is a tribute to David Warren, Dianne’s father, who had worked as an insurance salesman, writer and a painter. It was produced by David Foster and featured in the film Up Close & Personal.

References

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Diane Warren is a creative genius!! In fact, I just saw this amazing profile on her in Theodora & Callum’s Creative Factory today– check it out!! http://bit.ly/j59qkU