Diane Warren: Relentless (2025)

This documentary was nominated in the category of Best Song for the 2026 Academy Awards. It is about Diane Warren, who I had never heard of, but that is on me because she is a powerhouse in the musical world. She is sixteen-time Academy Award nominee songwriter--though never a winner, she has done quality work for movies. She’s written for more than four hundred and fifty recording artists--she started writing songs when she was a child and by adulthood she was pushing artists to consider singing her songs. She really was relentless in her pursuit of the perfect performer to showcase her work, and that persistence paid of for everyone. She’s penned nine number-one songs and had thirty-three songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Who is she? She is a loner and never married. She is stuck in her ways; for example, she writes in the same room she has from the beginning. She ownss her childhood home at least partly because it is where she started writing. SHe trusts the same people she has known for her whole life. She is set in her ways and it has served her well. Those hoping to walk away with a greater understanding of her prolific outputcommensurate with her success will do so empty-handed, though not without having been entertained.