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The Music Room
What is “Jerusalema” actually about?
Asking to be taken somewhere better. Sung in isiZulu by Nomcebo Zikode, produced by Master KG, released in 2019.
Does it help on a hard day?
Yes, and in a way no other song on this list does: it comes with a step, and the step is the point.
In 2020 a line dance to this record spread from Angola across the world. Nurses did it in hospital corridors. Families did it in kitchens. It is the only entry here where the help on offer is doing something physical, badly, with other people in the room.
And because most listeners outside southern Africa do not understand the words, the song arrives as pure feeling rather than as a message. For somebody tired of being told things, that is a relief.
What it is
A gospel-house record by Kgaogelo Moagi, who records as Master KG, with vocals by Nomcebo Zikode, released in 2019. The lyric is a spiritual plea, in isiZulu, to be carried to Jerusalem — a place meaning home and safety rather than a literal destination. The remix was certified diamond in France in 2021.
Who this is wrong for, and when
No death, no illness, no bereavement association we have found.
One honest note: the lyric is religious, and the destination in it is a better place beyond this one. Translated, some listeners hear an afterlife. If that reading is painful for you, the untranslated version genuinely is not — and that is a legitimate way to listen to it.
Why it is on this list
Because grief is extremely isolating and this record is a set of instructions for not being alone for four minutes. It also widens this page past the American and British music that dominates lists like this one, which matters on a page meant for everybody.
If this one is not right for you
Oh Happy Day for the same sense of a room full of people. Levels for movement on your own. Take Me Home, Country Roads for something everybody already knows.
Where to hear it
Streaming on every major service. Read about it on Wikipedia · Find the credits on AllMusic.
We make nothing from these links. There are no affiliate links anywhere on this page and there never will be.
Back to the room
The Music Room — one hundred songs, sorted by what the moment needs.
How to tell if a charity deserves your money
We publish the test we use on ourselves, including the parts we do not pass yet. Read it here.
If tonight is bad
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741. Never behind a form on this site.
Before you give to anyone
How to tell if a charity deserves your money
We wrote down the checklist we use. Before we send a dollar anywhere, we run the organization through CharityWatch, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator and Candid. It is one page, and it works on any charity — including this one.
Read the checklist — freeOn the site, right now. Nothing to fill in and no email needed.
Start here — free, no sign-up
Guide one · 7 pages
A Reason to Get Up
Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, and what that book can and cannot do for you after somebody dies. Who Frankl actually was, what he actually argued, and the famous quote that is not his.
Download the guide — freePDF, 7 pages. Nothing to fill in, no email, no ask attached to it.
Three more, if you want them
These are the books we read and the things we did after we lost Austin. Not advice and not therapy — an honest account of what helped us, and what the research actually says about each of it. Every statistic in them carries a source and a year.
Guide two · 9 pages
The Circling
The Power of Now, and what is actually happening when you cannot stop going over it. Includes the part no grief guide prints: meditation is not risk-free, and who should be careful.
Guide three · 11 pages
Give It Away
Why doing something for somebody else, expecting nothing back, appears to do something for you. With a verified list of places that will take you this week, and the ones that will ask you to wait a year.
Guide four · 16 pages
The First Year
The practical one. What actually has to be done, what the months afterward really look like, and fifty things that might help — each one labeled for whether there is evidence behind it.
If tonight is bad
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the US. You do not have to be in immediate danger to use it.
Crisis Text Line. Text HOME to 741741.
Veterans Crisis Line. Dial 988 then press 1, or text 838255.
If there is an immediate danger to life, call 911.
