Which U.S. state's official song comes from a Broadway musical?

The soaring title track from the groundbreaking 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, *Oklahoma!*, holds a unique distinction among official state anthems. Ten years after the show became a Broadway sensation, the Oklahoma Legislature officially adopted the song as its state anthem in 1953. This made it the first, and still most famous, state song to originate directly from a commercial stage production.

The musical itself was a landmark in theater history, praised for seamlessly integrating song and dance into its storytelling about life in the Oklahoma Territory at the turn of the 20th century. The title song serves as the show's grand finale, a powerful chorus celebrating the land where the "waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain."

The show’s immense popularity and its pride-filled, romanticized depiction of the state made the song an obvious choice for lawmakers. It had already become an unofficial anthem for residents long before the legislature voted to make it official. To this day, the rousing tune remains inextricably linked with the state's identity, cementing its place in both American pop culture and official state history.