Man Singing The Lion King Song With a Donkey Goes Viral

Fans can’t stop talking about the amazingly lifelike animals in the new Lion King remake. The newest version of the 1994 classic features Donald Glover as Simba and Beyoncé as Nala belting out some of the beloved songs that the audience got to know two decades ago. No one could have expected animals to start doing covers in the real world though. But, one very soulful donkey named Nathan decided to join his owner in an impromptu version of Nants’ Ingonyama from the start of the film. There might not be a sunrise coming over the hills or the sweeping instruments, but the song is still massively entertaining.

The man in the video’s name is Travis Kinley; he posted the duet on Facebook before the release of the film. Near the beginning of the video, he warns the audience that “They are not ready for this one.” In many ways, Kinley was correct. Standing in a clearing with a horse and his trusty backup singer, he and Nathan belt out the instantly recognizable chant as the horse looks on bewildered. Once the donkey gets started, he really starts feeling the rhythm and even follows his owner’s lead when he sections into another song from the film.

Once people got past the hilarity of seeing this man performing Disney favorites with his donkey, the question became: Where in the world do you get a singing animal from? Travis Kinley told a local television station in South Carolina how he met Nathan and how they discovered their shared love of song.

“I got (Nathan) from about the North Carolina, South Carolina line,” Kinley explained to WLTX. “He was causing some trouble at someone else’s house and I just picked him up for $100 bucks, he seemed alright with me.”

Nathan seems like he was quite the bargain. It’s not every day that you can pick up a singing donkey for just $100. Kinley explained that the entire video was the result of his friends asking him to film himself singing some songs with all of the animals.

“So, I got in the pasture, I gather all horses…. I start singing and Nathan starts to bray behind me, and I’m kind of blown away because we never do this together; we never sing together,” Kinley continued. “He keeps going, so I keep going, and all of a sudden I just kind of break down laughing at the end.”

As of the time of writing, the video has over 3.5 million views and has been shared more than 60,000 times. People just can’t get enough of this singing duo. Maybe Nathan can score himself a cameo in the sequel if he plays his cards right.