Beyoncé has apparently offended several Kenyan musicians after they were omitted from the Lion King: The Gift album.
According to an interview with TMZ, John Katana — the frontman of Chakacha Kenyan band Them Mushrooms — noticed the multi-platinum selling superstar didn’t include any local artists on the project, which has been dubbed a “love letter” to Africa.
“No one called us,” Katana says in a video call. “We just read about it in the media just like everyone else. There’s been a big debate on social media about that; Kenya missing out on the Lion King.
“The creatives in the country are complaining that Kenyan acts, if not Them Mushrooms, should have been on Beyoncé’s recording because the phrase was made popular from Kenya. So everybody feels that Kenya should have had a piece of the pie. But, that’s not case. So yes, we should have been on the album.”
Disney reportedly tapped Nigerian pop star WizKid, Ghanaian producer Shatta Wale, Nigerian singer Burna Boy, South African artists Busiswa and Moonchild Sanelly, Nigerian stars Tekno, Yemi Alade and Mr Eazi for the album, but still excluded Keynans.
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Last year, a petition began to circulate calling for Disney to drop its trademark over “Hakuna Matata,” a common Swahili phrase Katana says they popularized in their ’80s platinum hit, “Jambo Bwana.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yInEW7VSTXg&feature=youtu.be
