Remember the time when the whole world danced to the beats of the legendary theme song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Yesss… it’s Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ that made everyone crazy with its thumping tunes… made everyone dance in African style.
And no doubt everyone lip-synced the song and the music was in everybody’s mind. The ‘Hip’s Don’t Lie’ girl truly made the whole world groove over “Tzamina mina eh eh, Waka Waka eh eh, Tsamina mina Zangalewa, This Time for Africa”.
Sorry! If the music starts beating in your mind. But it really surprised me when I found that the word ‘Zangalewa’ is an African traditional group who actually built the music of the song Waka Waka and are the real generators of the legendary music piece.
The Waka Waka song by Columbian singer Shakira featured the then hyped band of South Africa ‘Freshlyground’. The lyrics of the song were collaboratively written by Shakira and legendary musician John Hill.
It was released on May 7, 2010 by Epic Records as the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by South Africa.
Back then, the popularity of the song grew so much that it was released again in the Spanish language with the title “Waka Waka – Esto es Africa”.
Coming back, Waka Waka is originally derived from the Cameroonian Makossa song “Zamina mina -Zangalewa” by Golden Sounds and the lyrics encourage the soldiers to aim for their goals on a battlefield.
And the one who wears the crown, has to bear it too!! As the song get much popular it faced allegations of plagiarism too.
With the increasing popularity the song has to deal with some delegations that was led by the Cameroonian singer and songwriter Wax Dey in the year 2010.
Dey led the delegation that took Shakira to court in order to claim author’s rights for the plagiarized song for 2010 FIFA World Cup Song “Waka Waka”.
After which the Shakira’s team gave the group Zangalewa an advance payment of $400,000 and with that the traditional African group also received millions for every three months for its author’s right.
For his good deed, Wax Dey was appreciated by the Zangalewa member ‘Ze Bella’ who said in his praise that, “Wax Dey is young but he is a big man, indeed.”
Adding to it, Wax Dey also admitted that he took the step and expressed to the world, “I led the delegation that took Shakira to court so the Cameroonian music group Zangalewa could get their author’s rights for Shakira’s World Cup song – Waka Waka.”
The Cameroonian music executive revealed that he studied music business and law at a time when Africans didn’t know much about music as a business. So, he found himself in a position where, if whenever an artist especially the Nigerian artist had contracts, he’s be the first person whom they would call. “
Dey added to his verse, “I handled a lot of contracts for Flavour to the point of actually negotiating Flavour’s first international release with the Universal Music Group under my label.”
“Then there was a World Cup song by Shakira ‘Waka Waka’ that came out and obviously I knew the song was sampled from Cameroonian music group Zangalewa. Since I was in the US, I knew that the song was dropping and I called back in Cameroon and asked if they knew that Shakira was remarking the song” narrated Wax Dey.
And surprisingly his doubt was right, he said, “I was shocked to hear that nobody knew about it. With the understanding of law and everything about the music rights, I knew that something had to be done about it so I put myself in that position to make them get their due royalties.”
Music executive Wax Dey explained that he was the only one who was working for Zangalewa to make sure that they get their settlement done and which went very well by the way.
After the successful long run case, afro-pop star Shakira had to give them an advance payment of about $400k. But it didn’t end here, as the contract is much more substantial fee because for the past 10 years the group has been receiving millions for every three months from the royalties of that song.
“That’s where I found myself being exposed to the world and being more informed among other artists. As where I come from, people didn’t really know much about sampling and music rights at the time so I just had to do what was right,” said Wax Dey.
In fact, you can make a lot of money in music. Fortunately, with just one hit record if managed properly… it can pay you for life. Unlike any other profession, music money doesn’t get finished…like wowww!!!