Master KG — Jerusalema ft. Nomcebo Zikode (2020)

Kgaogelo Moagi — Master KG — grew up in Calais village outside Tzaneen in Limpopo and built Jerusalema on a laptop. Nomcebo Zikode, a Hammarsdale-born vocalist who had spent years as a backing singer, wrote and sang the lyric in isiZulu. Nothing about the record was designed for export; it was a South African gospel-house track for a South African audience.

The dance challenge started in Angola in early 2020 and South Africans took it over completely. Then Covid-19 hit, and the Jerusalema Dance Challenge became the thing the whole country did: nurses in Gauteng hospitals, SAPS units, police in Italy, priests, farm workers in the Free State, families filming in their yards in Bothaville and Soweto. President Ramaphosa asked South Africans to dance it on Heritage Day 2020, and Mzansi did.

Jerusalema is the highest-charting and most-streamed South African record in history and the first SA song to genuinely own a global year. In this archive it counts as the single biggest Mzansi viral event ever recorded: over 300 million views across South African and official uploads, and a dance that South Africans still perform at every wedding, matric dance and Heritage Day since.