“Here we go again,” Diane Warren says. The Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner has jumped on the phone to discuss “Io sì (Seen)” a beautiful ballad sung by Italian pop star Laura Pausini from Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead.” A song that also puts her right back in the middle of awards season. And you can get an exclusive first look at the music video for the song, also directed by Ponti, embedded in this post. But if you’re wondering whether Warren, who has been nominated 11 times without winning is still up for another grueling awards season in a pandemic, no less, you needn’t worry.
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“I love it. I really do. I love the process,” Warren says. “Look, I’ve been nominated 11 times and I’ve lost 11 times, and it’s still fun. I love it. And the thing is, if I had a choice of winning years ago and never getting nominated again, as opposed to being nominated, losing 11 times, I would definitely choose the 11 times. It’s longevity. And I think my best work is right now and ahead of me.”
“The Life Ahead” is Sophia Loren’s first leading role in a feature film this century and her first major screen role since 2009’s “Nine.” Loren plays Madame Rosa, an elderly Holocaust survivor who looks after children whose mothers are often sex workers to make a living. An exception to that rule is Momo (newcomer Ibrahima Gueye), an orphan who Rosa reluctantly takes on. As Rosa’s unexpected dementia begins to take its toll, the two form a close and emotional bond. Ponti, who also co-wrote the screenplay, directs his mother for the third and possibly final time.
“The script really moved me,” Warren says. “The story is such a beautiful story. And it inspired me to write ‘Seen.’ Because to the outside world, both Madame Rosa and Momo are not accepted for who they are. There’s this old woman, a former prostitute, that takes care of other prostitute’s kids. No one sees the beautiful souls they have. They’re beautiful people. Ultimately, they see that in each other.”
Warren figured her track would be the end song (it begins before the credits start), but Ponti didn’t tell her what to write.
“Usually I come up with that myself. If I read a script or I see a movie and I’m doing the end song for it, it’s almost like there’s… I can’t explain it,” Warren says. “I want to write the song that I want to see at the end of that movie, the song that ties everything together emotionally. And when I am reading the script, that word seen came to me. These are people that aren’t really seen as who they are by the outside world, yet they truly see each other.”
Despite a legendary career in the music business and Academy Award-nominated songs such as “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” and “How Do I Live,” “Seen” is actually the first song she’s written that was initially recorded in a language other than English.
“The thing is, it has to sound beautiful in whatever language it’s in,” Warren says. “I don’t speak Italian. So, there are some words that probably would be kind of clunky in another language. Not everything is probably exactly literal [in translation], although it seems like it’s close. It does sound beautiful in Italian. Just brings a whole different thing to it.”
Pausini, a Grammy winner herself who recorded the song in five different languages, also was Warren first choice to sing it.
“She was definitely my idea,” Warren notes. “I thought, ‘Who’s the best Italian female singer?’ And I was like, ‘It’s Laura Pausini.’ And she loved the song. She connected with it.”
Warren already had a new album planned before the pandemic, “Diane Warren: The Cave Sessions, Vol. 1”, coming in early 2021 and a new single, “Times Like This” featuring Darius Rucker, dropping on Nov. 10. Like many other songwriters, she says she’s been just as prolific over a semi-stay-at-home year.
“I have no idea what other people are doing, but for me, definitely. I just go to work,” Warren says. “I sit in a room by myself. So nothing’s really changed for me except there’s nobody in my office to annoy me. I kind of love it, the silver lining in the apocalypse. I’m super creative and really writing some great songs. [“Seen”] was one of them that I wrote this year, and a bunch of others you’re going to hear [soon]. It hasn’t held me back. I do feel bad for people that can’t work, that they’re in the live music industry. Because there’s a whole ecosystem, all those people don’t have a job, so it’s f**ked basically. And I hope it gets better.”
“The Life Ahead” arrives on Netflix on Nov. 13. The music video for “Io sì (Seen),” which features a cameo from Loren, is embedded in this post.
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