“Doomed to Loving You” is the striking new single from acclaimed Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jen Awad and award-winning composer Will Bates.
The track was born from a chance introduction between the two artists by photographer Diana Gomez at West Hollywood’s Petit Ermitage. A casual conversation quickly revealed a shared love of storytelling, music, and the legendary lore of Ibiza’s Pikes Hotel — including Bates’s unforgettable tale of being rescued at sea by Tony Pikes himself. That serendipitous evening led to more nights of connection, culminating in Awad hearing an idea Bates had been holding for the right collaborator.
From the moment Awad heard the opening bars, she knew the song was cinematic in scope — instantly conjuring Shirley Bassey’s grandeur and Bond-level intensity. By the end of the night, she had written the refrain that would become its haunting core: “I’m doomed to loving you.” Within days, the song was finished.
Both artists are fiercely independent, with distinctive artistic identities. Jen Awad is a lyrical force with roots in Peruvian and Egyptian heritage, commanding stages with her 12-piece band and curating Valley of the Dolls, one of Los Angeles’s most immersive cultural events. She has earned comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin for her blend of raw emotional transparency and powerhouse vocal delivery.
Will Bates, meanwhile, is a celebrated composer whose credits include feature films such as Dumb Money, Another Earth, and Immaculate as well as acclaimed series like Unbelievable, The Magicians, and Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches. He is the founder of Fall On Your Sword, an award-winning music production company, and is recognized for his ability to craft bold, emotionally resonant soundscapes.
Their collaboration took them from Los Angeles to Bates’s Ibiza studio, where they quickly wrote a series of new songs. “Doomed to Loving You” is the first to be shared, and it has already found its cinematic home in Tony & Ziva, a Paramount+ original series that has held steady among the platform’s Top 10 TV shows since its premiere.
With Awad’s commanding vocal presence and Bates’s sweeping orchestration, “Doomed to Loving You” delivers the kind of rare electricity only found when two singular artists collide. It is both a standalone single and the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between two creators whose shared instincts are equal parts theatrical and deeply human.
