Noah Kahan has emerged as a star in 2023, but his name might be a cause of confusion for some, especially if it’s one of those things you’ve only read and have never heard spoken out loud: How do you pronounce “Kahan?” Is it “kay-han?” (That was my initial thought.) “Kuh-hahn?” According to Emma Stone in a promo video for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live with Kahan as musical guest, it’s pronounced like “con.”
After Stone introduced Kahan, SNL‘s Sarah Sherman chimes in, “And I Kahan’t wait for the show,” a joke that wasn’t received too well by Stone or Kahan. She got a better reaction with, “Kiss her? I hardly Noah!”
Kahan himself previously addressed the pronunciation question in a TikTok Story video from October. He gave a pronunciation tutorial after noticing people were “having trouble” with saying “Kahan” properly. He explained, “It’s ‘con,’ one of the A’s is silent, so kind of like ‘Genghis Khan’ but not related at all.”
Kahan is one of the final SNL musical guests of 2023. Earlier this week, the show announced its musical guests for the two episodes after Kahan’s turn tomorrow, the last two shows of the year: Rodrigo will perform on December 9 and Billie Eilish will close out the year on the 16th.