Adele revealed in a recent Q&A with fans that we’ve been pronouncing her name entirely wrong… Well, most of us anyway. A fan from London filmed a video question for the “I Drink Wine” singer, who then praised her for saying her name the right way. (It’s spoken more like uh-dale, rather than the standard uh-dell.) In recent years, quite a few other popular musicians have come forward to share how to actually say their names — whether it’s first, last, or both. Or, in Adele’s case, just a single stage name.
Here are some other artists you might be mispronouncing.
Ariana Grande shocked fans after sharing that her last name isn’t spoken as “gran-deh.” Instead, it’s “gran-dee,” as she noted in an interview for Beats1 Radio in 2018. “I grew up saying ‘Grand-ee’ and I think of my grandpa and I wish I said ‘Grand-ee’ more,” Grande shared. The pronunciation is the Italian one, although many have just Americanized her last name, including her brother.
Björk is another common musician that people probably pronounce incorrectly. The ones most used are “bejork” or “bee-york,” but the Icelandic musician has spoken it herself: “bee-yer-kh.”
Pop star Rihanna revealed in an interview with AJ Hammer on YouTube that it is, in fact, pronounced “Ree-ann-uh” rather than ree-ah-nah.”
The band Bon Iver has corrected fans on the group’s name too. While it was inspired by a French term for “good winter,” it isn’t exactly. The proper way to say it is “bone e-vare.”
Other honorable mentions of names to double-check include the band Haim (Hayh-uhm), Macklemore (spoken with “le” instead of “el”), Hozier (hose-ee-er), and Kid Cudi — who opened up about his real last name.
“We’re going to do this right now. I really want everybody to learn how to pronounce my last name. This has been bothering me for 13 years. I know I kind of confuse everybody with my rap name. It’s ‘MESS-cud-e,'” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last December.
