I would not say it’s a happy ending.”Īs South African journalist Rian Malan laid out in his deeply reported RS exposé “In the Jungle: Inside the Long, Hidden Genealogy of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’” in 2000, the song’s story is as tangled as just about any in pop history. “The family would like to know the implications of featured in The Lion King to the rights of Solomon Linda,” says Themba Dladla, a grandson of Solomon Linda who is currently working with the estate. “They want to know who still holds the international rights and how can we work toward having those rights. “I’ve got more than a bit of melancholy in my head now.” (The new movie also includes a remake of “Mbube” by South African singer Lebo M., and according to a lawyer for Folkways, the publisher of “Mbube,” the family will be receiving songwriting royalties from its placement in the film.)īut the idea that the family is again missing out on a windfall for Solomon Linda’s contribution to pop music is the latest in a seemingly endless number of cruel twists in the saga of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” one that has reopened old wounds and exposed other financial issues that have emerged since the original deal with Disney. “Nobody knew in advance into the future,” sighs Hanro Friedrich, a South African lawyer who worked with the family at the time. (Disney declined to comment on the record for this story.)Īnd when the paperwork for that deal was worked out over a decade ago, no one imagined that The Lion King would be remade with computer-generated animals. Nothing in the situation is unlawful: The contract between Disney and the Linda family was finalized, and the family has no legal right to continue receiving royalties. The family’s settlement arrangement with Disney ended on the last day of December 2017, a year and a half before the new movie opened, which means, as it stands now, that Linda’s heirs don’t stand to profit from the inclusion of the song in The Lion King. The soundtrack album broke into the Top 20 on the Rolling Stone Top 200 album chart.īut once again, it seems as if the Linda family won’t be benefiting from the song. And despite mixed reviews, it has pulled in more than $500 million in the States (and over $1 billion outside the U.S.). Again, this appeared to be good news: With a cast that already included Beyoncé and Donald Glover, the new Lion King had all the signs of a potential blockbuster. Six years earlier, a Rolling Stone story had tipped the world off to the situation and Linda’s family sued Disney, resulting in an out-of-court settlement. Linda, who died in 1962, would belatedly receive a co-writing credit on “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and his family would be handed a lump sum for past royalties and a cut of future revenue.Ĭut to early 2019, when the Linda family learned that a new version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” sung by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner, would be used in the remake of The Lion King. For decades, Linda barely received any compensation for the incorporation of his song into “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” That situation ended in 2006. In both the first movie and a later stage production, The Lion King features “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a Sixties pop hit that has its roots in “Mbube,” a song written and recorded in the Thirties by South African singer and migrant worker Solomon Linda. Three years ago, when Disney announced a remake of its animated classic The Lion King, it was easy to be skeptical: With the original still so beloved, was an upgrade even necessary? But at least one family in South Africa was hopeful.
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