Jimmy Kimmel apologises to Beyoncé for mispronouncing her name for 20 years

‘You told us “say my name, say my name,” and we didn’t listen,’ host joked

Jimmy Kimmel has issued an apology to Beyoncé for wrongly pronouncing her name for years.

The singer has been a popular point of conversation this week, as it was announced that she’d be releasing her seventh studio album on 29 July.

On Thursday’s (16 June) episode of his late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host and comedian brought up the music news as part of his opening speech.

“This will be Beyoncé’s first new album since 2016. And I feel like this is a good time to mention something that’s been bothering me,” he told the audience.

Kimmel asked for her name to appear on screen as a visual aid to his point, before continuing: “I want everybody to look at this together. The accent mark is at the end. It’s on the ‘e’.

“So it’s actually Be-yon-say,” he said, placing emphasis on the “be”, “Not Beeyon-Say’.”

He then made a joking reference to her time in girl group Destiny’s Child with a nod to their 1999 hit, “Say My Name”.

“And I just want to be-yon-say, to be-yon-say,” Kimmel joked, “that I am so-ray for screwing up your name for 20 years.

“I mean you said, you told us ‘say my name, say my name,’ and we didn’t listen.”