Five Commonly-Mispronounced Musical Names

Today, Sufjan Stevens releases The Age of Adz, the last word of which is pronounced “odds.” In tribute to this time-honored tradition of difficult-to-pronounce musical names, below are five of our favorites. (By the way, it’s Soof-Yawn, not Suf-Jan.)

Björk
Pronunciation: byerk
Common Mispronunciations: byork, buh-jork, buh-jerk

Listen to Björk’s “Comet Song”:

Xiu Xiu
Pronunciation: shoo shoo
Common Mispronunciations: shwee shwee, zoo zoo, joo joo

Watch Jamie Stewart explain one mispronunciation in particular:

Sade
Pronunciation: shar-day
Common Mispronunciations: suede, shade, shaw-day, said

Listen to Sade’s “Soldier of Love”:

!!!
Pronunciation: chick chick chick, bang bang bang, pow pow pow, or basically the same syllable three times in a row
Common Mispronunciations: “that band with the exclamatio, points,” “Um…”

Listen to !!!’s “Yadnus”:

Dungen
Pronunciation: dune-yen
Common Mispronunciations: dungeon, done-gen

Listen to Dungen’s “Det Tar Tid”: