Interesting Facts About The Viral Jerusalema Dance Challenge (UPDATED)
(UPDATED on ) — A video showing a group of priests and nuns dancing to Master KG’s hit song Jerusalema went viral on the internet in July 2020. One video posted on Facebook on July 20, 2020 had over 130,000 shares and more than 6 million views by July 25th.
On Twitter, the same video was shared by several people. For example, the tweet below shared the video on July 23. By July 25th, it had more than 1,000 retweets and had been viewed more than 66,000 times.
I have a “Jerusalema” earworm & this is my current favourite dance video for it. 😆 pic.twitter.com/etAEKa3CwQ
— Ottilia Anna MaSibanda (@MaS1banda) July 23, 2020
Some South African websites wrote about the video. In a July 22nd story, Gauteng-based The Citizen located the video in Legnano, Italy. On July 23rd, TimesLIVE wrote about the group of priests and nuns in the article “Master KG’s Jerusalema’s challenge hit Italy”.
The videos of the dance received many positive responses on Facebook and Twitter. Several people mentioned that the nuns and priests’ dance moves made them smile. Others wondered where the video was filmed. One South African Twitter user wrote: “It put a smile on my face.. our brother is making the world dance.”
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Who is Master KG and what is the song Jerusalema about?
Kgaogelo Moagi (aka Master KG) is a South African musician. He released his first single in 2016. His first album, released in 2018, received several awards. In December 2019, he uploaded Jerusalema to YouTube. The song features the vocalist Nomcebo Zikode. Nomcebo credits her background in singing gospel and afropop for helping her come up with the lyrics and the melody for her vocals on the hit. In June 2020, Master KG released a remix of Jerusalema featuring Nigerian afrofusion singer Burna Boy.
In the original version of Jerusalema, Nomcebo sings in Zulu. According to YouTube users’ comments under the song’s video and to the website AfrikaLyrics.com, the meaning of the lyrics are: Jerusalem is my home/Guide (or “guard me”) me/ Walk with me/My place is not here/My kingdom is not here. In the remix version of the song, Burna Boy added lyrics in Yoruba and English.
FACT CHECK: Are these Italian nuns and priests really dancing to the song Jerusalema?
Some details in the first viral video of priests and nuns dancing to Jerusalema should raise anyone’s suspicions…
First, the audio was clearly added over the video’s original sound. We don’t hear the original ambient sounds of the video such as the dancers’ hands clapping. We also don’t hear the sounds coming from the small crowd watching the dance performance.
Second, in a post-lockdown Europe, it is surprising that no one in the crowd is wearing a mask as a protection against Covid-19.
A quick Google and/or YouTube search confirm these suspicions. Type “Franciscans dancing” on Youtube and you will come across several videos of men and women dancing in their religious habits. You may also see the following 2 videos that clearly show the same group of nuns and friars from the viral Jerusalema video.
These videos were posted before the year 2020. One was posted in October 2016 and the other one in November 2017. They show different angles and different moments of the same dance performance. The October 2016 video is clearly the one used for the viral Jerusalema video.
Sorry to rain on your parade… But, the answer is: no, the priests and nuns in this video are not dancing to Jerusalema. Whoever made the viral video added the song Jerusalema to an old video where priests and nuns danced to a different song. However, because of the song’s success around the world, many people -including nuns and priests in several countries- later took part in the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge.
Among the people who danced to Master KG’s hit, there were: a priest and mass servers from Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal (Canada); Dominican nuns from Trujillo (Spain); sisters from the Umzimkulu Diocese in South Africa. And, it wasn’t just religious people who made videos of them dancing to Jerusalema. We’ve also seen: young residents of Jerusalem, supermarket workers in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo), dancers in New York (United States), officers and firemen in Nairobi (Kenya), staff and nurses of the Catharina Ziekenhuis hospital in Eindhoven (Netherlands), and many more. For more videos of the Jerusalema Dance Challenge, check out the Youtube playlist below.
How did the Jerusalema song go viral?
The viral #JerusalemaChallenge started in Angola in early 2020. In February, the Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba posted a video of them dancing to the song while holding a plate of food and eating from it. The dance challenge quickly spread to other parts of Africa and to the rest of the world. More people started sharing their own versions of the dance challenge.
How to dance to the Jerusalema song?
The choreography for the Jerusalema song comes from South Africa. It is usually performed at weddings. After the Angolan dancers made the song and dance go viral, many people around the world learned the choreography. If you too want to learn the dance, check out the video below.
Jerusalema becomes a global hit
As we are approaching the end of the year 2020, the success story of the song Jerusalema is still ongoing. According to CNN, Jerusalema was the second-most Shazamed song in the world in mid-October. As of November 23rd, it is the sixth most Shazamed song in the world. So far, the Shazam app has been used more than 7 million times to identify the song Jerusalema. During the week of November 21st, the remix featuring Burna Boy was at the 47th position in the Billboard Global 200 chart. The video for the remix premiered on YouTube on October 23rd.
The song Jerusalema has performed very well in several countries around the world. In August, the song topped the iTunes charts in 10 countries including South Africa, Portugal, France, Italy, and Romania.
This story has been updated with additional information about the song Jerusalema and its success around the world.
