Discover the story of the song > Over The Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

- Over the Rainbow is a song composed in 1938 by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg.
- The song was popularized by Judy Garland in the movie The Wizard of Oz.
- In 2004, the song was #1 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list of the 100 greatest movie songs of American cinema.
- The song's plaintive melody and simple lyrics tell of a teenage girl's desire to escape from the "hopeless jumble" of this world, the sadness of raindrops, to a new world full of color "over the rainbow.
- This song also expresses the childlike belief that the heavens will open a passageway to a place where "troubles melt like lemon-drops".
- Like Irving Berlin's White Christmas, this song was adopted by American troops fighting in Europe during World War II as a symbol of the United States, the distant land that, after long years of war, appeared like a dream behind a rainbow.
- In the 1970s, this song was also the trigger for the homosexual revolution and the Gay Pride in the Stonewall riots, the rainbow being the sign of the LGBT community.
- Today, it may escape us that the song had a long introductory verse, since it was not sung in the film by Judy Garland.