Diane Warren failed to shake off her Oscars curse at the 2026 ceremony.
The American songwriter, 69, was nominated for the 17th time at this year’s awards but was left empty-handed yet again.
Her long history with the Academy Awards began in 1987, with the song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from Mannequin, and she received eight consecutive nominations between 2018 and 2025.
The star now holds the distinction of being the nominee with the most nominations who has never won, beating the previous record holder, sound mixer Greg P Russel, who has 16.
Shortly after the ceremony, Diane took to social media to share her disappointment, saying: ‘Well, at least I’m consistent!’
While she can make a joke about it, there is a cruel irony behind her most recent loss.
Diane Warren was nominated for the 17th time at this year’s Oscars but was left empty-handed yet again after her song Dear Me lost to KPop Demon Hunters’ Golden
Her long history with the Academy Awards began in 1987, with the song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from Mannequin, and she received eight consecutive nominations between 2018 and 2025 (pictured in 2015)
Diane was nominated in the Best Original Song category for the song Dear Me.
It’s performed by Kesha in the documentary about the songwriter’s career, Diane Warren: Relentless.
The documentary highlights her fierce dedication to creating hits and her unique journey as one of music’s most successful, non-performing creators.
It also focuses on the many times Diane has missed out on an Oscar, which is a dagger in the heart for the songwriter, as it highlights her reality once again with her recent loss.
The song Dear Me, which features in the documentary, was a track Diane wrote for her younger self.
‘I wanted to talk to the young girl that was bullied and made fun of and told I wasn’t good enough my whole life,’ she told USA Today. ‘I wanted to tell that young girl that she’s going to be OK.’
Sadly, it lost out for a win at the ceremony as Ejae, 24, Ido and Teddy Park took home the prize for their song Golden from KPop Demon Hunters.
Following her loss, fans took to X to highlight how the parallels in her documentary continue.
They penned: ‘Can’t decide if Diane Warren being nominated for the song she wrote for the documentary she made about being always the Oscar nominee never the winner is more a 30 Rock joke or a The Other Two one’,
‘I think we need to take a moment to appreciate that Diane Warren’s awful nominated song this year is from a documentary ABOUT how Diane Warren loses the Oscar for her awful nominated songs every year’,
‘What a good sport Diane Warren is. If PTA/Chloe Zhao/Ryan Coogler/Nolan or any other A-list director asked her to write a song for their next film, she would finally win an Oscar. The nominations she’s gotten in the past decade are for obscure, minimally-seen films’,
‘The Academy nominating Diane Warren every year and never actually giving her an oscar is an incredible bit’,
‘Brace yourselves for Diane Warren 2: Relentless Forever’,
‘Diane Warren basically wrote her own Oscar-losing biopic soundtrack talk about method songwriting.’
The songwritter, 69, was nominated in the Best Original Song category for the song Dear Me, performed by Kesha in the documentary about the songwriter’s career, Diane Warren: Relentless
Following her loss, fans took to X to highlight how the parallels in her documentary continue
Diane lost out for a win at the ceremony as Ejae, 24, Ido and Teddy Park took home the prize for their song Golden from KPop Demon Hunters
Diane’s long history with Oscars began in 1987, when she lost to The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing, setting the tone for what would become one of the most talked-about streaks in Oscar history.
She then reeled off a trio of major hits – Because You Loved Me with Celine Dion in 1996, How Do I Live with Trisha Yearwood in 1997, and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing with Aerosmith in 1998 – all of which were nominated but ultimately missed out on an Oscar win.
Her nominations continued into the next decade, and she was recognised for Music of My Heart from Music of the Heart, performed by Gloria Estefan and NSYNC in 1999, followed by There You’ll Be from Pearl Harbor, performed by Faith Hill in 2001.
After a brief gap, Diane returned to the Oscars in 2014 with Grateful from Beyond the Lights, performed by Rita Ora.
The following year, she earned a nomination for Til It Happens to You from The Hunting Ground, performed by Lady Gaga.
In 2017, Stand Up for Something from Marshall, performed by Common, lost to Remember Me from Coco.
The next year, she was nominated for I’ll Fight from RBG, performed by Jennifer Hudson, followed by I’m Standing With You from Breakthrough, performed by Chrissy Metz the year after.
She then earned nominations for Io sì (Seen) from The Life Ahead, performed by Laura Pausini in 2020, as well as Somehow You Do from Four Good Days, performed by Reba McEntire, and Applause from Tell It Like a Woman, performed by Sofia Carson in the following years.
In recognition of her contributions to music, Diane was awarded an honorary Oscar at the Governors’ Awards in 2022.
In 2023, she was again nominated for The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot, performed by Becky G, and The Journey from The Triple Six Eight, performed by H.E.R. the following year.
Last week, Diane shared her disappointment that her nominated song wouldn’t be performed at the 2026 Oscars.
‘It would have been nice had [Kesha] been able to perform the song,’ Warren told USA Today at a Women in Film Oscar nominees event on Friday. ‘And that would have been an amazing moment. I’m not in control of that, but it would have been amazing.’
She was referring to the Academy’s controversial decision to have only two of the nominated songs performed at the ceremony this year.
And ahead of the main event last Sunday, a deflated Warren told ABCNews: ‘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.’
Then, following her loss, she took to social media after the ceremony and penned: ‘Well at least I’m consistent! And I set a new record tonite!! But U know me, I will be back if you’ll have me!!!’
