Ira Gershwin

To me, Ira Gershwin is one of the great unsung architects of American song. He slipped lyrics onto his brother George's melodies so naturally that lines like those in I Got Rhythm and Someone to Watch Over Me feel inevitable, as if the words were always there. Lyricists tend to live in the composer's shadow, yet Ira won a Pulitzer Prize for drama, proof that his craft stood on its own. I think the wit and emotional precision of his words shaped twentieth-century popular music as profoundly as any tune, and his Walk of Fame star is richly deserved.

Name (English)

Ira Gershwin

Name (Japanese)

アイラ・ガーシュウィン

Reading

あいら・がーしゅうぃん

Born

December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Monkey

Origin

Manhattan, New York, United States

Occupation

lyricist / composer / songwriter / librettist / poet

University

City College of New York

Awards & achievements

• 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• 1986 Grammy Trustees Award
• Congressional Gold Medal
• 1998 star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

• Official sitehttps://www.gershwin.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira%20Gershwin
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A5%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q61059

Tags

• New York
• lyricist
• composer
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.