The Zulu are a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

. Many Zulu musicians have become a major part of South African music

Music of South Africa

The South African music scene includes both popular and folk forms. Pop styles are based on four major sources, Zulu isicathamiya singing and harmonic mbaqanga...

. A number of Zulu-folk derived styles have also become well-known across South Africa and abroad.

Mbube and Isicathamiya

Main articles: Mbube (genre)

Mbube (genre)

Mbube is a form of South African vocal music, made famous by the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The word mbube means "lion" in Zulu. Traditionally performed a cappella, the members of the group are male although a few groups have a female singer...

, Isicathamiya

Isicathamiya

Isicathamiya is a singing style that originated from the South African Zulus. In European understanding, a cappella is also used to describe this form of singing.-Background:...

Mbube is both a song, originally released in the 1940s by Solomon Linda

Solomon Linda

Solomon Popoli Linda , also known as Solomon Ntsele , was a South African Zulu musician, singer and composer who wrote the song "Mbube" which later became the popular music success "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and gave its name to the Mbube style of isicathamiya a cappella popularized later by...

, and a genre of South African popular music that was inspired by it. "Mbube" was recorded in 1939 and became a major hit in Swaziland

Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...

. The song was in a traditional Zulu choral style, which soon came to the attention of American musicologist

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

 Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...

, who brought to the song to folk singer Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

, then of The Weavers

The Weavers

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...

. They made the song a Top 15 American hit in 1952 (as "Wimoweh"), though creator Solomon Linda was not credited; later, the Kingston Trio released a cover

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of it http://www.sigidiart.com/Docs/Behind%20The%20Hits%20The%20Lion%20Sleeps%20Tonight.htm. Later still, The Tokens

The Tokens

The Tokens are an American male doo-wop-style vocal group from Brooklyn, New York. They are known best for their chart-scoring 1961 single, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" .-Career:...

 turned the song into "The Lion Sleeps Tonight

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube", is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers,...

", and it became a #1 American hit. The Durban-based Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South Africa that sings in the vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with Paul Simon on his album, Graceland and have won multiple awards, including three Grammy Awards...

, formed by Joseph Shabalala

Joseph Shabalala

Joseph Shabalala , born Bhekizizwe Joseph Siphatimandla Mxoveni Mshengu Bigboy Shabalala, is the founder and musical director of the South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.-Early life and career:...

 in 1960, sings, among other styles, music in the mbube tradition.

Modern Zulu

The 1970s duo Juluka

Juluka

Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...

, consisting of a white man, Johnny Clegg, and a Zulu, Sipho Mchunu

Sipho Mchunu

Sipho Mchunu is a Zulu musician best known for his partnership with 'white Zulu' Johnny Clegg in the band Juluka from the 1970s to the 1990s. Mchunu's Zulu compositions, vocals and guitar work brought traditional Zulu styles such as maskanda and mbaqanga to a wider crossover audience both in South...

 produced a blend of rock and Zulu folk music called maskanda

Maskanda

Maskanda is a kind of Zulu folk music that is evolving with South African society. describes it as "The music played by the man on the move, the modern minstrel, today’s troubadour. It is the music of the man walking the long miles to court a bride, or to meet with his Chief; a means of transport...

, which has since evolved into an urban style called mbaqanga

Mbaqanga

Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s.-History:...

.