It’s reasonable to suppose that keeping up with the pronunciation of various pop culture celebrities would be challenging, but BBC presenter Nick Owen struggled to pronounce Jay-name Z’s live on air.
When faced with delivering a report about a father and son whose closet pastime of creating TikTok videos has seen them gather 84 million views on their account, the veteran broadcaster stumbled slightly.
On the broadcaster’s local news show Midlands Today, Nick, 75, stated that the videos had garnered up big profile followers like Beyonce and Jay-Z, whose name he pronounced as ‘Jay Zed’.
However, when the programme ended, he swiftly remedied his little error, which appeared to have been pointed out to him by a producer.
‘Oh, respect Brian,’ he replied, referring to the 75-year-old lollipop man who discovered hip hop through his son.
‘And you know I meant Jay-Z when I said Jay-Z, because I am truly down with the youth,’ Nick continued.
At the same time, he lifted his eyebrow and made the shaka sign with his right hand.
Soon later, fellow BBC journalist Scott Bryan tweeted the video, calling it ‘Oh My God. Watch Nick Owen’s report on Midlands Today. ‘Persist until the end.’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever recover,’ he subsequently remarked.
Plenty of other people were also obsessed with Nick’s response, with others saying that he was ‘a national treasure’.
Another added it was ‘a great recovery from a truly amazing broadcaster’.
Others expressed their love for the presenter, with Nick even responding to some of their comments.
Presenting Midlands Today since 1997, when reflecting on his nearly 45-year career last year, Nick said that there were ‘moments when things have gone wrong and you lose contracts or programmes come to an end and you keep battling on’.
‘With hindsight, however, I’ve had some wonderful highlights and I’ve been privileged to meet loads of wonderful people, so I think I’ve been very fortunate,’ he told the Shropshire Star.
While numerous comments on social media indicated that he had a large number of long-time supporters, he’s also gained a few new ones.
