Lion King Singer Sues Comedian for Mistranslating Circle of Life Chant

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.”

Jonasi allegedly made a similar joke about “The Lion King” chant during a March 12 performance in Los Angeles and “received a standing ovation,” per the lawsuit (via The Guardian).

“Such viral statements, [the lawsuit] says, are interfering with Morake’s business relationships with Disney and his income from royalties, causing more than $20 million in actual damages. The lawsuit also seeks $7 million in punitive damages,” The Guardian reports. “The complaint argues that Jonasi presented his translation ‘as authoritative fact, not comedy’ so it shouldn’t get the first amendment protections afforded to parody and satire that make fun of other artistic works.”

While Jonasi has not commented on the lawsuit against him in any legal matter, he did recently post a video to social media amid his U.S. comedy tour in which he said he was a “big fan” of Morake’s work. He offered to team up with Morake for a video in which the two could explain “The Lion King’s” chant’s meaning.

“Comedy always has a way of starting conversation,” Jonasi said in the video. “This is your chance to actually educate people, because now people are listening.”