"God's Country" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin (Blake Shelton song), Austin" from his Blake Shelton (album), self ...

. It was released on March 29, 2019, as the first single and partial title track from his compilation album '' Fully Loaded: God's Country''. The song was written by

Devin Dawson Devin Dawson Durrett (born January 30, 1989) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He became known after filming a mashup of Taylor Swift songs with his fellow friend Louisa Wendorff on her YouTube channel, which gained popularity ...

Jordan Schmidt Jordan Schmidt is an American mixing engineer, record producer, and songwriter. His portfolio covers musical styles including pop, country, rock, and alternative. Schmidt was born in Duluth, Minnesota to local musicians. He started recordin ...

, and

Michael Hardy Michael Hardy may refer to: *Hardy (singer) Michael Wilson Hardy (born September 13, 1990), known mononymously as Hardy (stylized as HARDY), is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has written songs for Florida Georgia Line, Chris ...

Background and recording

The song has been described as a

Southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...

anthem. Dawson stated that he and his fellows wrote the song on a Thursday, and that "Blake heard it, and by Monday he had recorded it". Shelton first heard the song while working on his farm in Oklahoma, and was blown away by the song. He related "I had to stop and just listen to this song, because the song was talking to me about a place that I was in at that moment, which was a place in the middle of nowhere that meant something to me that probably nobody else could ever understand, what that is and what it is inside of me and what my connection is to the land". He recalled thinking "I've gotta record this song, and I think I even decided before I even recorded it, This has got to be the song that I put out next". Shelton performed the song at the

54th Academy of Country Music Awards The 54th Academy of Country Music Awards was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 7, 2019. Nominations were announced on February 20, 2019 by Reba McEntire during CBS This Morning, with Chris Stapleton and Dan + Shay ...

Music credits modernization

The production process for "God's Country" was a flagship for digital music credit-delivery. The music credits on the release were collected digitally during the recording process using the Sound Credit platform and delivered to Warner Music Nashville in a standardized digital format called Recording Information Notification (RIN). The credits were then delivered to streaming platforms such as Pandora, marking a milestone of end-to-end digital music credits.

Content

Shelton has stated that "God's Country' is a song that has a strong and deep meaningful lyric, but at the same time it leaves it up to the listeners' interpretation". He went on to state that "But no matter where you are from or where you're standing it is my belief that you're standing in God's Country. It's really about a state of mind. Wherever you're from and how you feel about that place. For me, it's about being from Oklahoma – where I was born, raised and still live today".

Commercial performance

"God's Country" was the best-selling country song in its first full week of sales, with 32,000 sold. Shelton performed the song at the 2019 ACM Awards the following week on April 7, which helped to keep sales up at 31,000 that week. It reached No. 1 on ''Billboard''s Hot Country Songs chart dated May 25, 2019, his 14th on the chart and his first since " Sure Be Cool If You Did" in 2013. The song was certified Gold by the RIAA on June 27, 2019, and Platinum on July 31, 2019. It has sold 540,000 copies in the United States as of March 2020.

Music video

The music video was directed by

Sophie Muller Sophie Luise Elisabeth Muller (born 31 January 1962) is an English music video director who has directed over 300 music videos. She won a Grammy Award for Annie Lennox's 1992 ''Diva'' video album, and an MTV Video Music Award for Lennox's song " ...

, and shot over the course of four days in and around

Tishomingo, Oklahoma Tishomingo is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Johnston County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,101 as of the 2020 census, an increase of 2.2% over the population of 3,034 reported at the 2010 census. It was the fir ...

. It depicts Shelton singing and working on a modern farm, interspersed with historical footage of the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...

, storms, beautiful nature shots, and traditional rural and farm imagery, concluding with a burning tractor. The video is intended to convey the intensity of farm life, while juxtaposing the "good, beautiful things of God's country, and also the wrath of God".

Awards

"God's Country" won in the category of Single of the Year at the 2019 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards. Shelton received his 9th Grammy nomination for "God's Country" at the

2020 Grammy Awards The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 26, 2020, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from October 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019. Ali ...

in the

Best Country Solo Performance The Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is desig ...

category. "God's Country" won in the category of Single of the Year at the 2020 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2019 songs 2019 singles Blake Shelton songs Songs written by Jordan Schmidt Songs written by Hardy (singer) Song recordings produced by Scott Hendricks Warner Records Nashville singles Songs written by Devin Dawson Southern rock songs Songs about Georgia (U.S. state)