The Love Story Behind “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”.
Before it became one of the biggest power ballads of the ’80s, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” started with Albert Hammond’s own life. Hammond had been living with his girlfriend, Claudia, for seven years. After finally getting divorced from his previous marriage, he was thinking about writing a song for the two of them, a kind of musical wedding gift. Then Hollywood came calling. Hammond and songwriter Diane Warren were commissioned to write a big romantic song for the 1987 movie Mannequin. Hammond brought his real-life love story into the room, telling Warren that after seven years of obstacles, nothing had managed to keep him and Claudia apart. That idea became the heart of the song: two people who had been through the hard stuff, still standing together, refusing to let anything get in their way. The song eventually found its perfect home with Starship, pairing Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick on vocals. Produced by Narada Michael Walden, it became Starship’s third No. 1 hit and the signature song from Mannequin. It was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Underneath all those huge ’80s keyboards and soaring vocals is something surprisingly personal: Albert Hammond was writing about a love that had already survived the odds. And maybe that’s why the song still feels so triumphant. It wasn’t just a love song for a movie, it started as a promise to someone he loved