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 unlawful self-profit and destruction of the imaginative and artistic work of Lebo M,” reads the legal complaint.

The lawsuit demands a whopping $27 million in damages from Jonasi for defamation, libel and business interference that could affect Lebo M’s longtime collaborative relationship with Disney. Lebo M says he “now fears for his life due to Xenophobic comments,” and he claims he’s been “confronted and bombarded” with comments about the podcast clip while on tour with Hans Zimmer in Europe.

Lebo M’s claims face tough odds, as the First Amendment broadly shields comedy from legal scrutiny and liability for defamation. Lebo M’s lawyer attempts to get around free speech protections by arguing that Jonasi “did not frame this as a joke in delivery.”

“Defendant presented it as factual knowledge with misguided authenticity to increase exposure and mockery of Lebo M’s creative masterpiece,” writes attorney Michael Younge.

The lawsuit marks an escalation in a back-and-forth that’s been taking place on social media between Lebo M and Jonasi since the podcast clip went viral. Lebo M stated in a March 4 video on Instagram that he’d messaged Jonasi about his concerns, but the comedian brushed him off and said he’d been doing the same joke for eight years and did not plan to stop.

“It’s rather painful to see an ignorant wannabe comedian promote ignorance and it become so globally powerful,” said Lebo M in the video. “I did try to engage this young man, and he was so arrogant.”

Jonasi responded with an Instagram video of his own on March 14, saying he was initially receptive to Lebo M’s messages and had hoped they could create a collaborative video clarifying the situation — but that he shut down the conversation after the composer called him “self-hating.”

“I realized that I’m not having a conversation with somebody that actually wants to do that,” said Jonasi in his video. “This person is literally not attacking the joke, but my character.”

A rep for Jonasi did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday (March 17).

Peter Frampton is showing fans the way to his next musical era, announcing Tuesday (March 17) that he’ll be dropping his first album of original music in 16 years in May.

Titled Carry the Light, the LP will arrive May 15 and features a number of star collaborators. The first single, “Buried Treasure” — a tribute song in honor of Tom Petty — dropped on the day of the album announcement.

In a post on Instagram, the rocker wrote, “This record is a very special one for me. I got to write and produce it with my son Julian, as well as work with some wonderful friends along the way.’

Among the featured artists are Sheryl Crow, who sings with Frampton on “Breaking the Mold,” and H.E.R., who plays guitar alongside the Humble Pie alum on “Islamorada.” Tom Morello fittingly appears on a track titled “Lions at the Gate,” which is described as a “protest song” in a release.

Also on the record are Graham Nash on “I’m Sorry Elle,” Benmont Tench on “Buried Treasure” and saxophonist Bill Evans on “Can You Take Me There” and “Tinderbox.”

Frampton’s last proper album, Thank You Mr. Churchill, dropped in 2010 and appeared on the Billboard 200, on which the guitarist has scored 14 entries total. His 1976 live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the chart.

The new project will also mark his first full-length since being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. He was also present at the induction ceremony the year prior, playing alongside Class of 2023 member Crow during her performance that night — which also saw Morello accepting an induction on behalf of Rage Against the Machine.

“[Sheryl] stirred the pot big-time and made people aware — including some of the board members, I think,” Frampton told Billboard in 2024 of crediting Crow with his nomination to the Rock Hall. “They thought I was already in.”

See Frampton’s announcement and listen to “Buried Treasure” below.

Bad Bunny’s lawyers say an African music publisher should cover their fees after dragging the Puerto Rican superstar into failed copyright litigation over a track on his chart-topping album Un Verano Sin Ti.

emPawa Africa, an independent music company that has a deal with Nigerian songwriter Dera, sued Bad Bunny last year for allegedly failing to ask their permission before sampling his 2019 song “Empty My Pocket” on “Enséñame a Bailar,” which spent two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022. Bad Bunny maintains that he properly cleared the sample with another rightsholder on “Empty My Pocket,” the producer Lakizo.

The attorneys repping emPawa dropped out of the lawsuit at the end of 2025 due to “irreconcilable differences,” ultimately leading a judge to dismiss the case for lack of prosecution earlier this month. Now, Bad Bunny and various co-defendants in the case, including Rimas Entertainment and The Orchard, argue that emPawa should have to foot the $465,612 legal bill they racked up defending against the “frivolous” claims.

“This case was meritless from the beginning and should never have been brought,” reads the Monday (March 23) motion for legal fees. “Instead, emPawa filed and aggressively litigated it, apparently hoping that Bad Bunny’s wealth, prominence and desire to avoid attorneys’ fees and bad publicity would enable emPawa to extract an undeserved, multimillion-dollar settlement.”

Bad Bunny’s lawyers say emPawa dragged out the case even though it was clear from the beginning that the “Enséñame a Bailar” sample was properly licensed from Lakizo. emPawa allegedly used various tactics to “stall and delay” the litigation, then bowed out when it came time to hand over evidence through the discovery process.

“When faced with an imminent court order that would require it to explain how it owned ‘Empty’ and Lakizo did not, Empawa chose instead to abandon its claims altogether,” reads Monday’s motion. “That it did not find a replacement counsel to prosecute its claims after its original counsel withdrew speaks volumes.”

According to the motion, this conduct forced heavy-hitting music lawyer Jeff Goldman and a team of attorneys from Florida firm Gray Robinson to rack up hundreds of hours on Bad Bunny’s defense. The three senior lawyers on the case billed hourly rates of $555, $615 and $680.

Reps for emPawa did not immediately return a request for comment on the fee request. Notably, Bad Bunny is seeking fees only from the publishing company and not from Dera himself, even though the songwriter was a plaintiff in the case, too. A footnote explains this decision: “It is moving defendants’ belief that this co-plaintiff, Ezeani Chidera Godfrey p/k/a Dera, was not primarily responsible for the prosecution of the lawsuit, nor did he finance the lawsuit.”

Under U.S. law, the winners of copyright litigation can get their legal fees covered by the losers if they can show that the claims were frivolous or unreasonably handled. This is designed to deter unscrupulous actors from abusing the court system with meritless lawsuits.

Musical artists who prevail over copyright accusers frequently turn to this remedy in the aftermath. Mariah Carey, for example, is currently seeking $1 million after defeating a copyright infringement lawsuit over her holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Nelly, too, recently demanded that the lawyer repping one of his former bandmates reimburse him $78,000 for litigation over the rights to his debut album Country Grammar.