{"id":500332,"date":"2026-03-28T16:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500332\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T16:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T16:00:12","slug":"the-lion-king-singer-sues-comedian-for-mistranslating-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500332\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LION KING Singer Sues Comedian for Mistranslating Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"article-category\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/topic\/animation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tAnimation\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We have had some downright bizarre lawsuits filed in the history of Hollywood. Remember the nuns vs. Katy Perry? But this one might be one of the wackiest yet. Thanks to a report in The Guardian (via <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" class=\"info-target-blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/lion-king-singer-sues-comedian-mistranslating-circle-of-life-chant-1236700713\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/lion-king-singer-sues-comedian-mistranslating-circle-of-life-chant-1236700713\/\">Variety<\/a>), we\u2019ve learned that South African composer Lebohang Morake, who performed the iconic opening chant in \u201cCircle of Life\u201d at the start of Disney\u2019s iconic The Lion King, is suing the comedian Learnmore Jonasi. He\u2019s suing Jonasi for \u201cdamaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the (often parodied) song\u2019s meaning on a podcast and in his standup routine.\u201d Morake is looking for nothing short of $20 million dollars in damages.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"920\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lion-King.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-1068140\" alt=\"Simba and the rest of the characters from The Lion King.\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"   onerror=\"window.nerdistCallbackImageOnError &amp;&amp; window.nerdistCallbackImageOnError(event)\"\/>Walt Disney Animation <\/p>\n<p>Everyone who has seen The Lion King knows that opening chant, even if they have no idea what it means. Or even how to pronounce a single word. We\u2019ve all heard some epic botchings of this opening tune using nonsense words. \u201cCircle of Life\u201d actually begins with the words \u201cNants\u2019ingonyama bagithi Baba.\u201d What this actually translates to is \u201cAll hail the king, we all bow in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" class=\"info-target-blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/mufasa-the-lion-king-review\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/mufasa-the-lion-king-review\/\">the presence of the king<\/a>.\u201d Morake\u2019s lawsuit cites an episode of the One54 podcast where Jonasi cracked a joke that the lyrics in Zulu really say \u201cLook, there\u2019s a lion. Oh my god.\u201d Everyone on that podcast was laughing, but Lebohang Morake sure didn\u2019t think it was funny.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Morake\u2019s lawyer said, \u201cSuch viral statements are interfering with Morake\u2019s business relationships with Disney and his income from royalties, causing more than $20 million in actual damages.\u201d The lawsuit also seeks $7 million in punitive damages. Of course, these statements by Learnmore Jonasi were all part of a stand-up act and as part of a comedic exchange on a podcast. So it is doubtful this lawsuit will have much traction. But you never know. Stranger things have happened when it comes to these entertainment industry lawsuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Animation We have had some downright bizarre lawsuits filed in the history of Hollywood. Remember the nuns vs.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-500332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}