Some collaborations are carefully plotted in boardrooms. Others happen because the universe decides to have a little fun. “Doomed to Loving You” falls squarely into the latter — born from a totally unplanned meeting between powerhouse singer-songwriter Jen Awad and award-winning composer Will Bates, introduced by the ever-oracular photographer Diana Gomez at West Hollywood’s Petit Ermitage.
Within minutes, they were trading wild stories about Ibiza’s legendary Pikes Hotel — where Bates once got rescued at sea by Tony Pikes himself (yes, really). Awad didn’t need another sign; she knew she’d met her kind of chaos.
One spontaneous escape to the Chateau Marmont later, creative lightning struck. Fast-forward a few days: oysters, pizza, and an indecent amount of Sancerre at Bates’s house. Somewhere between bites, he played a melody he’d been keeping in his back pocket for years — waiting for a voice with cinematic firepower. Awad listened, smirked, and by the end of the night, she had the lyric:
“I’m doomed to loving you”
The rest unfolded like a fever dream — late-night sessions, synths humming, champagne bottles clinking, lyrics scribbled on napkins. The result? A song that feels like Shirley Bassey wandered into a Bond film directed by Baz Luhrmann.
Now, “Doomed to Loving You” has made its grand debut on Paramount+’s hit series Tony & Ziva, underscoring one of the show’s most emotional scenes.
From a random LA encounter to an Ibiza recording session that stretched until sunrise, Awad and Bates didn’t plan any of it but maybe that’s why it works. Some things aren’t meant to be organized. They’re meant to collide.
