God Bless the Child

"God Bless the Child" is a song co-written and recorded by Canadian country music artist Shania Twain. It was released on October 26, 1996 as the eighth and final single from her sophomore studio album The Woman in Me (1995). The album version was solely written by Twain and the single version was co-written by Mutt Lange. The album version is more a poem than a song, completely done a cappella. A country version and an alternate version without the banjo were later released for airplay. "God Bless the Child" was the least successful single from The Woman in Me, failing to crack the top 40 at US country radio and only peaking at number 7 at Canada country radio. It was included on Twain's Come on Over Tour usually accompanied by a local choir, and on Australian and Asian tour editions of the Come On Over album. All singles sales from the United States were donated to Second Harvest/Kids Cafe, and from Canada to Breakfast for Learning. Twain performed the song live at the 1996 Country Music Association Awards. Critical reception Entertainment Weekly gave the song a fairly favorable review, giving it a B grade and saying "while her sentiments are pretty naive, her pipes sound plenty experienced" and that Twain gives "enough passion to make us temporarily forget her pinup looks". Music video The music video for "God Bless the Child" was shot in Nashville, Tennessee and directed by Larry Jordan. It was filmed on October 3, 1996, and debuted on October 26, 1996, on Country Music Television. The video features two choirs. One included the Fisk University Jubilee Singers and the second was a local performing arts choirs singing along with Twain in a hangar at the Nashville airport. Two versions of the video were released, one with the banjo included in the audio for country stations, another without for pop and international stations. The "banjo version" video is available on Twain's DVD The Platinum Collection.