As the world’s second-best player, and somebody who enjoys social media, Cristiano Ronaldo’s every move is followed closely.

Jets, yachts, bling, and all the standard things that come with the trapping of wealth can be found on his Instagram account, but it’s his most recent post that has South Africans talking.

Did I ever think I would see a video on his account, with a soundtrack that starts with the word ‘eish’ repeated over and over?

Certainly not, but South African artist Master KG’s ‘Jerusalema’ has become a smash hit across the globe, and recently passed 100 million views on YouTube.

That’s set to increase after Ronaldo posted a video last night, tagging his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez, and saying “Life is better with your loved ones. Enjoy all the moments with love and happiness!”

The video appears to show some sort of family gathering, but who really cares, because it’s all about the backing track.

Here’s the post which has, at the time of writing, amassed in excess of 30 000 comments and more than 10 million views:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Life is better with your loved ones 🙏❤️ Enjoy all the moments with love and hapiness! ✨ @georginagio

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Sep 1, 2020 at 11:44am PDT

Somebody has also ripped the video and uploaded it to YouTube, if you prefer:

So, how has a song by a man hailing from Limpopo gone on to such worldwide acclaim?

The Daily Maverick’s Bongani Madondo has gone in-depth, but let’s pluck out some of the basics:

Shot in several locations including a mushy mash of an urban thicket in an open veld and recreational park, and spliced with hedonistic township dance scenes shot in Olievenhoutbosch, Midrand, the video sparkles with a saturation of colour…

The song has become not only infectious. It has morphed, via radio and TV stations, and most certainly via YouTube and other online platforms, into the equivalent of an airborne musical virus. It is the biggest, literally by footprint, and proportionally the most unreasonably popular and most listened to song in history, period.

Off the back of the song’s success, Master KG (24-year-old Kgaogelo Moagi) was recently signed to Warner Bros in France, and there’s a chance that it scores a Grammy Awards 2021 nomination.

At the same time, it was snubbed by the SAMA Awards, and SABC Song of the Year Viewer Choice.

Master KG comes from “a village in Tzaneen, known as, Skororo, some call it Calais village”, in his own words, so to end up on Ronaldo’s Instagram account, with his almost 240 million followers, is no small feat.

Read that full Daily Maverick article here.

Chances are you’ve seen the dance compilations, but perhaps you’ve missed the original music video.

Spin it one more time, and then we get on with the day:

[source:dailymaverick]