Jerusalema–now seen online as a song of hope

Articles

Jerusalema – could the South African dance craze be a symbol of hope? | Latest Ghanaian Music News & New Songs – Pulse Ghana

Jerusalema: The South African Song The World Needed (insider54.com)

How South Africa’s ‘Jerusalema’ Became a World Hit Without Translation – Rolling Stone

Where to get this song online

Songwhip link – availability on streaming or download-to-own services (7”single equivalent)

Beatport (download-to-own music service pitched at DJs) – 7” single equivalent

Qobuz Store (hi-fi-grade download-to-own music service – Now in Australia and New Zealand) – 7″ single equivalent

There is an album of the same name and recorded by the same artist featuring this song as an “album-length” track. It is available as an LP record or as a CD. You can get this at Amazon or your favourite record store may have a copy of it on hand or can order it for you if you want it playing on your turntable or CD player.

Jerusalema Dance Challenge video examples

Jerusalema Challenge – Aussies in Iso (Click or tap to play on YouTube)

My Comments

Over this past year, a South-African song with Zulu lyrics ended up becoming a musical symbol of hope through this COVID season.

This song, “Jerusalema”, was recorded in 2019 by Master KG but when it appeared online in 2020 along with a set of associated dance moves, it became very popular. There were a series of dance challenges where individuals or groups of people performed the dance associated with this song and uploaded music videos of their performances.

It was all concurrent at the time when the COVID-19 coronavirus plague was an unknown quantity and governments implemented measures to limit the spread of this virus. Such measures manifested in the form of border and travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and lockdowns; mask-wearing and social-distancing mandates; amongst other things.

At the same time, there was Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro who were treating this pandemic with contempt and creating disdain against these necessary public health restrictions and the medical-research races for treatments and vaccines. Even the act of honouring one or more of these public-health measures became politically-charged within the USA.

It was also aggravated by the death of George Floyd at the hands of American police offices which brought on the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This movement also highlighted how divisive things were within the USA when it came to civil rights and the treatment of marginalised minorities in that country and was aggravated by Donald Trump’s behaviour during the protests.

The song, its music and the associated dances conveyed a comfortable “feel-good” vibe along with a thread that unites the various communities of people whether “over-the-wire” using the Internet or face-to-face where the various restrictions allowed it. This helped with boosting public moral through this season. There was also a celebration of the survivors and of survival.

Let’s not forget the Zulu-language lyrics and the associated melody were conveying a message of escapism from the continuing barrage of bad news we were facing. This is very much like how other catchy popular music songs played by oneself during hard times can be seen as a form of escapism.

As well, “Jerusalema” has caused us to show interest in Afrobeat and placed Africa on the popular-music map. This follows on from the way African-heritage diasporas have contributed to popular music over the past century and a bit through the form of jazz, funk, soul, disco and similar musical styles along with musical techniques like rapping and breakdancing.

YouTube and similar services are replete with videos of these dance challenges done by various groups of people. There are even some European airlines who have had aircrew groups perform this dance and make a video in the name of the airline as a way of saying that we will be back in the air again. The Irish Gardai national police and the Swiss federal police each had some officer teams within their forces create similar videos as an effort to boost public morale within their nations.

There are also some videos existing on YouTube about how to perform the dance routine associated with this song. These resources can be worth referring to if you want to know how to perform the dance.

“Jerusalema” and its associated dance routine will be seen in the same light as some of those songs which had or acquired their own dance routines that market out particular years or eras. Think of songs like “YMCA” by the Village People; “Forever” by Chris Brown with its wedding-dance video; “Macarena” by Los Del Rio; or “Vogue” by Madonna.

But it will also continue to be seen as a song of hope for the COVID-19 season just like Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” became a song of hope through the 1970s or John Lennon’s “Imagine” being a song of hope through the Vietnam War era.

Update (23 June 2021) – added link to where you can purchase “Jerusalema” from Qobuz

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