Jerusalema’ Is Global Lockdown Hit
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Friday 21 Lifestyle | Features Friday, November 13, 2020 S African song ‘Jerusalema’ is global lockdown hit hen coronavirus placed the world in lockdown, a that he was continuing with life as normal despite the song’s gospel-influenced anthem with Zulu lyrics brought huge success. “I’m not feeling like superman or that I’m the man Wpeople together through social media, lifting spirits of the moment. It’s just the same,” he said last week at the Sand and instantly becoming a global phenomenon. Today, Festival. “I know now I am having the biggest song in the world “Jerusalema” has clocked more than 230 million YouTube views but that doesn’t change me, it doesn’t change how I look at in less than a year-and lured an army of people into mimicking things, how I look at people. Because music is music.” Festival- its dance moves. “The feedback was crazy,” says 24-year-old goers braved a heavy downpour on November 1 to catch South African artist Master KG, who co-wrote and performs the “Jerusalema” performed live for the first time since the pan- disco-house track with Nomcebo Zikode. The viral “Jerusalema demic hit southern Africa in March. German musician Rafael dance challenge” saw thousands across the world posting clips Loopro, who performed at the festival, lamented the effects of of themselves copying the video choreography. the coronavirus pandemic on live music performances. Front-line medical workers, soldiers, stiff-limbed clergymen, “I was saying to him (Master KG) that I was sorry that this diners at swanky European restaurants and even the Cape Town song became big this time because he could have been playing Philharmonic Orchestra-everyone seemed to want to shake a all over the world.” “But he didn’t even know that the song was leg. Lucius Banda, organizer of the annual Sand Music Festival on number one in Germany,” Loopro said, adding that the last on the shore of Lake Malawi, says “Jerusalema” became a time an African song had topped the charts in his country was “Covid anthem”-a source of joy at grim times. The chart-top- three decades ago. “It’s an amazing song and he is an amazing ping song on Sunday bagged the Best African Act at this year’s guy. He is very down to earth.” MTV European Music Awards. “We are exceptionally proud of Master KG (right), The South African DJ behind the global pop our ambassadors... representing our motherland in such a unify- Palestinians ing and unprecedented manner,” tweeted South Africa’s arts and Many people may have danced or hummed along to the song hit “Jerusalema”, performs at the Sand Festival held on the culture minister, Nathi Mthethwa. A remix featuring Nigerian with no idea about the lyrics. The words mean “Jerusalem is my beaches of Lake Malawi, in Salima. —AFP star Burna boy was recently awarded diamond status in France home, guard me, walk with me, do not leave me here-Jerusalem “Palestinian refugees will one day return to their ancestral, in- for clocking 35 million streams since its release in June this year. is my home, my place is not here, my kingdom is not here.” digenous land despite apartheid Israel,” the Palestinian-led Boy- Defenders of the Palestinian cause have taken this to de- cott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement said in a tweet. Live performance scribe the yearning of young Palestinians who want to make Is- It dedicated a rendition of the dance by the young of Jerusalem Master KG, whose real name is Kgaogelo Moagi, told AFP raeli-occupied East Jerusalem the capital of a future state. to “our friends in South Africa.” —AFP something that is tied to their representation on film,” he ‘Come Away’ lets Alice in added. “I think there are far more people who are going Wonderland, Peter Pan take to celebrate what we do in this film than the few and small voices who take umbrage with it.” “Come Away” is re- flight with multiracial cast leased in US movie theaters on Friday and in the UK on Dec 4. Director Brenda Chapman said she was initially lice in Wonderland and Peter Pan are brother and sis- looking to cast a white man in the role, until Oyelowo’s ter in the new fantasy film “Come Away” that puts a name came up. “This is something new. And it opens up Anew spin on two of the best-known British children’s the world to so many more people (by making) these classic stories. And that’s not all. Both Peter and Alice are characters more relatable,” said Chapman, who described played by multi-racial young actors, with David Oyelowo herself as a middle-aged white woman. playing their father and Angelina Jolie playing their mother in Keira Chansa said the chance to play the young Alice BTS group turn of the 20th century England. “They are iconic characters was refreshing. “I’ve always watched the films and read in beloved fairy tales, but we’ve never seen them put to- the books, and it was always a white girl,” she said. “So BTS to celebrate New Year with first gether,” said Oyelowo, best known for playing American civil to be able to experience it, to be somebody who looks rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, in “Selma.” like me, is a big change in the world and makes a big dif- show since coronavirus shut-down “These are fictional fantasy characters that race is not ference.” —Reuters outh Korean boyband sensation BTS will welcome in the New Year with their first live concert since they were forced Sto call off a world tour because of the novel coronavirus, their management company, Bit Hit Entertainment, said yesterday. The concert - “2021 New Year’s Eve Live” - will be on Dec. 31 just outside the South Korean capital, Seoul, and will include other groups on the Big Hit label including NU’EST, GFriend and ENHYPEN. Limited seating will be available, in line with government coro- navirus safety guidelines, though Big Hit did not specify numbers. The show will be streamed online. “It will be the first concert to feature Big Hit artists in one grand event, capped with the count- down to welcome in the New Year,” Big Hit said. The seven-mem- ber BTS had to call off their tour of nearly 40 concerts in Asia, Europe and the United States, which had been due to begin in April, as the coronavirus spread around the world. They played a virtual concert last month, drawing more than 990,000 viewers from 191 countries, and fetching some 50 billion won ($45 million) in ticket sales. Since their 2013 debut, the band has ridden a global K-Pop wave with catchy, upbeat music along with lyrics and social campaigns aimed at empowering young File photo shows Angelina Jolie gestures during a photocall people. Their latest hit was “Dynamite”, their first song entirely in ahead of the European premier of ‘Maleficent Mistress of Evil’ English, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in Sep- File photo shows David Oyelowo speaks on stage. in Rome. —Reuters photos tember. —Reuters.