‘The Circle of Life’ Chant Performer Sues Comedian Over Viral ‘The Lion King’ Podcast Clip

The composer and performer of the iconic opening Zulu chant in “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King is suing a comedian over a viral podcast comment about the song. The lawsuit, filed on Monday (March 16) by South African composer and singer Lebo M, stems from Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Jonasi’s appearance last month on the podcast One54 Africa .

In a now-viral clip, Jonasi said the famous “The Circle of Life” chant, “Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba,” translates in English to “Look, there’s a lion. Oh my god.” Lebo M (full name Lebohang Morake) wrote this chant and performed it in both the 1994 original The Lion King movie and its 2019 remake. Lebo M alleges in the Monday lawsuit that the chant is a form of royal praise poetry that relies on metaphors, and its true translation is, “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.” “Jonasi’s reduction to ‘Look, there’s a lion.

Oh my god’ is not a simplified translation — it is a fabricated, trivializing distortion, meant as a sick joke for...