The Story Behind God Bless America: Song, Faith, History

"God Bless America" is a prayer set to music, written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant who came to New York as a five-year-old boy. He wrote the first version in 1918 as an Army private, shelved it for twenty years, then revised it in 1938 for Kate Smith, who premiered it on the radio on November 10, 1938.

At a Glance

• Irving Berlin first wrote "God Bless America" in 1918 at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, for an all-soldier revue called "Yip Yip Yaphank," then cut it from the show.
• Kate Smith premiered the revised song on her radio program on November 10, 1938, the eve of Armistice Day.
• The sheet music was copyrighted in February 1939, and Smith's Victor recording followed in March 1939.
• In 1940, Berlin set up the God Bless America Fund, which directs the song's royalties to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
• On the evening of September 11, 2001, members of Congress sang it on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and ballparks across the country soon added it to the seventh-inning stretch.

Who Was Irving Berlin?

Irving Berlin was born in 1888 in the Russian Empire, and his family fled the pogroms against Jews when he was five, settling in New York. The family was poor, and according to a U.S. Copyright Office history, young Irving was helping to support them from the age of eight. He grew up to become one of the most successful songwriters the country has ever produced, the man behind "White Christmas" and "There's No Business Like Show Business."

That background matters for understanding the song. "God Bless America" was not written by someone who took the country for granted. It was written by a man who had arrived with nothing and found opportunity here, and it reads like the gratitude of an immigrant who never forgot where he started.

How Was God Bless America First Written in 1918?

During World War I, Berlin, by then an American citizen, was drafted and stationed at Camp Upton on Long Island. There he wrote an all-soldier revue, "Yip Yip Yaphank," to raise money for the camp. According to a Library of Congress National Recording Registry essay by historian Sheryl Kaskowitz, Berlin wrote "God Bless America" as the show's finale but decided against using it. He later explained that the song seemed "too obviously patriotic for soldiers to sing," like gilding the lily to have men already in uniform perform it.

So he put it away. The song sat in his trunk of unused material for twenty years.

How Did Kate Smith Make It Famous in 1938?

In the fall of 1938, Berlin came home from London troubled by the Munich crisis and the growing danger in Europe. He wanted to write a song of gratitude for America, and he told a reporter he hoped to write "a great peace song." Around the same time, the radio star Kate Smith and her manager asked him for a patriotic number for a special Armistice Day broadcast. Berlin pulled the old song from his trunk, reworked it, and gave it to her.

Smith introduced it on her program on November 10, 1938, the eve of Armistice Day, which Congress had made a legal holiday that same year. The premiere came one day after Kristallnacht, the Nazi attacks on Jewish communities in Germany. Smith went on to sing it on the air nearly every week, recorded it for Victor in March 1939, and made it her signature song for the rest of her career. The recording and the sheet music both became best-sellers.

Why Is God Bless America Really a Prayer?

Listen closely and the song is not a boast about the nation's power. It is a request addressed to God. The original introductory verse even describes the singers raising their voices "in a solemn prayer." The chorus asks God to bless the land Berlin loved, to stand beside her, and to guide her with light from above. It speaks of the country as home, not as an empire.

That posture is deeply biblical. Scripture teaches that "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" (Psalm 33:12), and Paul urged believers to offer "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks" for all people and "for all that are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2). A song that asks God for blessing and guidance, rather than claiming the nation has earned it, sits comfortably in that tradition. It belongs alongside the prayer tucked into the hidden fourth verse of the national anthem and the confession behind the national motto, told in our history of In God We Trust.

It is also worth noticing who wrote this prayer. Berlin was Jewish, and the song's plain appeal to God for help has let Americans of many faiths sing it together with a clear conscience.

Where Do the Song's Royalties Go?

Berlin decided he did not want to profit from "God Bless America." In 1940 he established the God Bless America Fund, whose trustees collect the song's royalties and distribute them to the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. Scouting America notes that its Greater New York Councils alone have received more than $5 million from the fund, and a 2014 Copyright Office article put the total contribution to Scouting at $10 million. Every performance of the song, in other words, still helps young people.

What Role Did the Song Play After 9/11?

On the evening of September 11, 2001, roughly 150 members of Congress gathered on the East Front steps of the Capitol. After a moment of silence, they broke into an unplanned rendition of "God Bless America," a scene documented by the House of Representatives' own history office.

Six days later, when Major League Baseball returned to the field, the song took a new place in the seventh-inning stretch at ballparks around the country, as the Associated Press reported. Many teams later scaled back to Sundays, holidays, and special occasions, while some still play it at every home game. For many Americans, singing it with a stadium full of strangers feels like a shared prayer.

Why Is It Called a Second National Anthem?

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the official national anthem, adopted by Congress in 1931. But "God Bless America" has earned a place right beside it, and the Library of Congress itself has called it the country's "unofficial national anthem." Part of the reason is emotional. When the country grieves, as it did in wartime and after 9/11, people tend to reach for the song that sounds like a prayer.

Like the Pledge of Allegiance and its phrase "under God", it has become one of the small, shared rituals where faith and national life meet. The next time you stand for it at a ballgame, remember the immigrant private who tucked it away in 1918, and the simple request at its heart: that God would bless this land and guide it home.