‘The Lion King’ Singer Sues Comedian for Mistranslating ‘Circle of Life’ Chant and Seeks More Than $20 Million in Damages

By Zack Sharf

Zack Sharf

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Lebohang Morake, the Grammy-winning South African composer who performed the iconic opening chant in “Circle of Life” at the start of Disney’s “The Lion King,” is suing the comedian Learnmore Jonasi for “allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a podcast and in his standup routine,” per a report from The Guardian. The musician is seeking more than $20 million in damages over Jonasi’s mistranslation.

“Circle of Life,” which was Oscar-nominated for best original song (losing to the movie’s other song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”) and Grammy-nominated for song of the year, begins with the iconic chant: “Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba.” The phrase translates to: “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.” Morake’s lawsuit points to an episode of the “One54” podcast where Jonasi joked that the chant’s lyrics in Zulu translate to: “Look, there’s a lion. Oh my god.” The hosts of the podcast reacted by laughing and saying they thought the translation would be more “beautiful and majestic.”

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