
Barbra Streisand calls on Apple for a special change to Siri
By Sarah Walker
Barbra Streisand is fed up with having Siri, Apple’s built-in phone assistant, mispronounce her name — and with good reason. The 74-year-old recently told NPR’s Weekend Edition that the voice software has been saying her name incorrectly for five years.
“She pronounces my name wrong. [It’s] Streisand with a soft S, like sand on the beach. I’ve been saying this for my whole career.” Siri incorrectly uses a hard S that sounds like the letter Z. In an attempt to correct the technological faux pas, the singer and actress went straight to Apple’s head honcho with her complaint.
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“And so what did I do? I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name, finally.”
While a rep for Apple has yet to publicly comment on the situation, the Funny Girl star is hoping the error can be fixed by Sept. 30 — that’s the date Apple is set to release their latest software update, iOS 10.
The artist also known as Babs is currently on tour with her new album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Her final stop on Barbra: The Music... The Mem'ries... The Magic! will be in Toronto on Tuesday, Aug. 23 at the Air Canada Centre.
The album features a long list of A-listers singing alongside the New York native.
There’s Anne Hathaway carrying a tune to “At the Ballet” and Alec Baldwin performing “The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened.” Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Jackman, Seth MacFarlane, Antonio Banderas, Chris Pine and Jamie Foxx also lend their voices. The latter’s rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from The Sound of Music is a particular favourite.