<P> "There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal . The song, a slightly tongue - in - cheek salute to the glamour and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in an attempt to persuade Annie Oakley to join the production . It is reprised three times in the musical . </P> <P> The song is also featured in the 1954 movie of the same name, where it is notably sung by Ethel Merman as the main musical number . The movie, directed by Walter Lang, is essentially a catalog of various Berlin's pieces, in the same way that Singin' in the Rain--which starred Donald O'Connor as well--was a collection of Arthur Freed songs . There was also a disco version of the song made during the 1970s, with Merman reprising her singing role in The Ethel Merman Disco Album . The song became one of Ethel Merman's standards and was often performed by her at concerts and on television . </P>

Who wrote the song there's no business like show business