Barbra Streisand complains to Apple over Siri pronunciation

After years of hearing the second ‘s’ of her name as a ‘z’, the New Yorker got on the phone to the Apple's chief to correct the error

When you’re Barbra Streisand, you don’t just fill in the online complaints form, you call the chief executive – even if the company is Apple.

The legendary singer did just that when she finally got sick of hearing her voice being mispronounced by Apple’s Siri software, which acts as a kind of electronic personal assistant, answering questions and making recommendations.

After five years of hearing the second ‘s’ of her surname being pronounced as a ‘z’ instead of a soft ‘s’ New York’s most famous Jew got on the phone to Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook to complain. And it worked.

Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, immediately agreed to have Siri reprogrammed in the next update on 30 September so that Streisand’s name would be pronounced as it should be.

“Let’s see if it happens,” she told NPR. “Because [if it does] I will be thrilled.”