As 12-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren is in the midst of preparations for the 93rd Academy Awards, she has also found time to release her latest songwriting project, “Somehow You Do,” sung by Reba McEntire.
The song is in the Warren tradition of movie-based ballads.“Somehow You Do” is taken from the upcoming film, “Four Good Days,” starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis, out April 30.
In the film, Kunis plays Molly, an addict who shows no signs of recovery. She has been in and out of rehab and shows up on her mother’s doorstep. What will change this time around that will help Molly? Deb (Close) has seen this one too many times.
Warren recalls she was asked to write the song at the beginning of the pandemic. “I remember watching the movie and it was harrowing.”
Much like her currently nominated song “Io Si,” this new one is about despite harrowing situations. “There’s hope,” she says. “Sometimes when you don’t think you’re going to get through it, you do.” Warren says the song’s lyrics are applicable beyond the film, to the pandemic. “Everyone was going through it, and it was hard for so many people.”The circumstances as well as the themes of the film helped the song come together.
The soaring ballad sees Warren reunite with the singer; she also wrote McEntire’s hits “What If?” and “I’ll Be.” She was looking for the best artist to sing the song and compares the process to film casting. It was Leslie Lewis, a leading entertainment creative and management consultant who works with Universal Nashville, that suggested the fit with Reba.
“She’s gone through a lot of hard times in her life,” explains Warren. “But she an amazingly strong woman.”
McEntire’s strength and resilience made her the ideal match to represent the song and movie. “She’s a survivor. The song is about the strength of the human spirit and that you can survive stuff you don’t think you can survive.”
The key process Warren says for writing a movie song is it has to represent the movie and the emotional core of the film, but in doing that also be able to exist outside of it, with theme being, she says, that “in this case, anybody can get through anything in life.”
Her favorite lyric this time? “Life punched a hole in your soul,” Warren says. “That’s how it feels sometimes.”
McEntire says, “Diane Warren knows how to write a song equally as wonderful as Jon Avnet knows how to direct a video. I’m honored that I got to work with both of them to bring this song to life.”
Listen to the song below:
