Mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sah  

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"Mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sah" is the chanted vocal refrain of 1972 single "Soul Makossa" by Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, which was also used in Michael Jackson's 1983 "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (albeit in a different key and time signature) during the song's final bridge. Dibango's lawyers obtained compensation in an out-of-court settlement claiming Jackson had stolen the chorus from Dibango.

The refrain and its adaptations

The song's refrain consists of the phrase "ma-mako, ma-ma-sa, mako-mako ssa", which is a play in the word "Makossa", Dibango's main music genre. After the popularization of the song, the phrase was adapted and used in several popular songs, including:





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sah" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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