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.

When Natalie Cole released Unforgettable … with Love in 1991, it became her most successful album to date. The covers project, featuring standards recorded by her late father, Nat King Cole, cemented Cole’s own legacy in the R&B/pop/jazz arena, going seven-times platinum and winning the Grammy Award for album of the year. It also spun off the father/daughter title track duet “Unforgettable,” which won three Grammys, including record of the year.

Thirty-five years later, Natalie Cole’s musical legacy is still having an unforgettable impact in other ways, by sustaining the Cole family’s commitment to giving back and paying it forward. The singer-songwriter’s foundation has donated more than $1 million during the last two years, funding scholarships and various charitable causes across the country and globally, including a community center in Costa Rica. 

Cole is once again duetting with her dad on the charitable front as well. Earlier this year, the Natalie Cole Foundation and the Nat King Cole Foundation joined forces to support certain scholarships and charities. Among those recipients are the Harlem School of the Arts, Berklee College of Music, Grammy Camp and Vienna Philharmonic Academy. 

The younger Cole’s foundation stems from her death in 2015, as she dictated in her trust that her entire estate be transitioned into the nonprofit. As a result, every dollar from her estate earned through music royalties, SAG royalties, book royalties and other avenues goes to supporting the foundation’s charitable causes — a unique arrangement in the music industry, according to the foundation’s CEO, Howard Grossman.

“Unlike any foundation that is entertainment-derived that we know of — other than maybe the Louis Armstrong Foundation, which only services New Orleans — we are the only foundation of our type where 100% of the money goes to charity,” says Grossman.

Business management veteran Grossman (who retired last year as partner of Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, was Natalie Cole’s business manager from the late ‘80s until her death. Appointed by Cole as executor of her estate, he became sole trustee after her son Robert Yancy died in 2017. As CEO of the Natalie Cole Foundation, which he set up, Grossman works in tandem with a board of directors to select the charities and organizations the foundation will support. Those board members include its CFO, Eduardo Pabellon (also with Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman); Seth Berg, co-manager of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, who also manages Natalie’s entertainment legacy (her recordings, videos, concerts, name, image and likeness) and Natalie’s former manager, Barbara Rose, and music attorney Michael Crain.

“Our mission statement is to give to charities where we can make a profound difference,” says Grossman. “And we also gravitate to the arts because of Natalie’s involvement in the arts.”

Grossman cites the Bhatia Family Village in Los Angeles as one example of making a difference. Dedicated to serving adults 18+, the center — with a donation from the foundation — was able to build an assisted living facility for autistic individuals who have aged out of government assistance programs.

“If you’re on the spectrum,” says Grossman, “once you turn 18, you fall off the grid in terms of government help. This is what I mean by making a difference.”

Grossman further points out that the Natalie Cole Foundation has contributed funds to the TM23 Foundation to help build soccer fields for underprivileged kids in the Los Angeles area. Under the moniker Tommy’s Field — named for pre-teen soccer player Tommy Mark, who died unexpectedly in 2018 — the multipurpose sports fields are created to be safe spaces for local children and those with special needs. Two of the fields are in operation now; a third is currently being built.

The foundation also contributes to the David Foster Foundation. It was Foster, a musical collaborator and close friend of Natalie, who produced the Unforgettable album. Beyond the aforementioned Harlem School of the Arts and Grammy Camp, the foundation’s arts and education endeavors include teaming with the Playing for Change Foundation to fund a community center in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Recognized by the United Nations for its impact in aiding underserved children, the center teaches lessons in musical instruments, dance and voice, and provides an after-school program.

Children being deprived of arts education in schools and programs owing to local and federal budget cuts is what spurred two more of Nat King Cole’s daughters — Natalie’s twin sisters, Casey and Timolin Cole — to establish Nat King Cole Generation Hope in 2008. Since its launch, the nonprofit organization has funded multiple music education programs in South Florida (where Casey and Timolin are based) and Chicago.

“We thought it would be an important and wonderful way to keep our father’s memory alive,” says Timolin. “Casey and I were never in the forefront. We’re not the singers, the performers. So we like to be on this side of the aisle. We’ve proudly provided music education to thousands of children, carrying forward our father’s legacy of hope, harmony and opportunity.”

To broaden outreach and build long-term impact, Nat King Cole Generation Hope —since rechristened as the Nat King Cole Foundation — and the Natalie Cole Foundation recently decided to partner on certain scholarships and charities. “It made sense,” says Grossman, “to complement each other and work together on goals that were common to both of us.”

For example, both foundations fund multiple scholarships for Grammy Camp and support a choir and orchestra at the Harlem School of the Arts. They are also major contributors to the City of Hope and the Children’s Hospital of L.A.

Last November, Berklee College of Music awarded the foundations’ inaugural joint scholarship for voice to sophomore student Paris Pineyro; the $75,000 scholarship also commemorated what would have been Natalie Cole’s 75^th birthday. Timolin and Casey recently attended the Vienna Philharmonic Ball in honor of the foundations’ announcement that they would fund the first scholarship for an American to attend the Vienna Philharmonic Academy. 

The sisters, who work alongside the Nat King Cole Foundation’s board and development director, note that collaborating together on certain philanthropic efforts gives both foundations the chance to broaden outreach. It also opens the door to evaluating new models that can translate the Cole family’s heritage into real opportunity that will have a long-lasting impact.

“It’s about a shared belief that our father and sister had about the transformative power of music; its timeless ability to inspire, empower and uplift,” says Casey. “And that’s what we hope to do. It’s all about connecting cultures, saving lives across generations and wanting to give children the opportunity to explore and enjoy the power of music.”