Hello, how do you pronounce Rihanna's name? If the answer to that question is "why are you even asking me this, there's only one answer and that answer is clearly ree-ah-nah, duh," you are apparently wrong! So wrong! Turns out it's Ree-anna, a fact that Rihanna herself made all kinds of clear.
The internet is having a full meltdown thanks to a clip that British Vogue tweeted of Rihanna at a Paris Fenty launch, in which she very clearly pronounces her name Ree-Anna. Listen! LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS. But before you do so, how many other names has society been messing up?! Has it been Brit-Neigh Spears this whole time and no one bothered to inform me? Anyway:
Naturally, a bunch of people have been left shook by this revelation, though TBH everyone should know better because technically this pronunciation is not new news (we'll get to that in a moment):
Some fans seem to think this is an American accent (Ree-ah-nah) vs British accent (Ree-anna) thing, while others firmly believe there's no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude:
Mostly, everyone's just very rattled:
Either way, Rihanna herself has explained how to pronounce her name before in an interview with AJ Hammer, who said everyone's constantly getting on his case for calling her Ree-anna—even though she introduced herself to him that way. Her response? "It is [Ree-anna]. He's right."
Genuinely having flashbacks to the harrowing time JK Rowling informed everyone they'd been pronouncing Voldemort's name wrong:
What is life.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.
