Entertainment
BBC viewers hail ‘national treasure’ Nick Owen after spectacular Jay-Z gaffe: ‘He must be protected at all costs’-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro
The broadcaster made sure to let people know he was ‘down with the kids’.
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It would be fair to assume that keeping up with the pronunciation of all manner of pop culture figures would be difficult, but BBC presenter Nick Owen had a bit of trouble when it came to figuring out how to say Jay-Z’s name live on air.
The veteran broadcaster had a slight stumble when faced with presenting a segment about a father and son, whose lockdown hobby of creating TikTok videos has seen them amass 84million views on their account.
On the broadcaster’s local news show Midlands Today, Nick, 75, mentioned that the videos had picked up high profile fans like Beyonce and Jay-Z, whose name he pronounced as ‘Jay Zed’.
However, after the segment had wrapped up he quickly addressed his slight mistake, which it appears was pointed out to him by a producer.
‘Oh, respect Brian,’ he said, referencing the 75-year-old lollipop man who had found a new love for hip hop with his son.
‘And when I said Jay-Z, you know I meant Jay-Z, because I am seriously down with the kids,’ Nick added.
Nick Owen’s response to correcting his pronunciation of Jay-Z was TV gold (Picture: BBC)
Jay-Z – real name Shawn Carter – with his daughter Blue Ivy and wife Beyoncé at the 2018 Grammy Awards (Picture: Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images)
At the same time, he made the shaka sign with his right hand and raised his eyebrow.
Fellow BBC journalist Scott Bryan shared the clip to Twitter soon after, captioning it ‘Oh My God. Watch this report by Nick Owen on Midlands Today. Stick to the end.’
He later added: ‘I don’t think I will ever recover’.
Age is clearly but a number as Nick let us know he is ‘down with the kids’ (Picture: BBC)
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’.
Nick’s has picked up some new fans (Picture: Twitter)
Some-one pointed out he should go see Jay-Z live (Picture: Twitter)
Nick embraced the public reception to his pronunciation blunder (Picture: BBC)
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’.
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‘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 many responses on social media made it clear he had a lot of longstanding fans, he’s definitely picked up a few more now too.
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