The Lion(s) Sleep Tonight

Videos April 23, 2014

As we explore in our special Hip Deep episode,<a href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/wp/18131/the-money-show/" target="_blank"> “The Money Show,”</a> "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is one of the most infamous cases of an African song being used for massive financial gain by the West. <a style="color: #ff4b33; line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;" href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2014/04/Soloman2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-18160 alignright" alt="Soloman2" src="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2014/04/Soloman2.jpg" width="150" height="150"></a> In 1939, Solomon Linda and his Original Evening Birds recorded their song "Mbube.” It became a hit—the first African record to sell 100,000 copies. Nearly a decade later, Pete Seeger got a copy through his friend Alan Lomax and turned it into "Wimoweh," a minor hit for his group the Weavers. Set to English lyrics in 1961, the song became a massive international smash as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-18161 alignleft" alt="the-tokens-the-lion-sleeps-tonight" src="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2014/04/the-tokens-the-lion-sleeps-tonight.jpg" width="146" height="146"> Today there are over 400 recordings of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"—here are just a few for your listening pleasure (and bewilderment). From VeggieTales to Dora the Explorer, a Celtic bagpipe version to a bass-dropping dubstep mix, "Lion" is truly a song that the whole world knows. It's estimated that by the early 1990s the song had earned at least $15 million in royalties—and that's before Disney got on board with the Lion King animated film, soundtrack and stage production. <iframe loading="lazy" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLnbCYyu4zhmpPUjpYWOJo3Am2jp0wL5dL" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe> To learn more about the legal battle over rights to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” listen to our full episode, <a href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/wp/18131/the-money-show/" target="_blank">“The Money Show”</a>.