NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 26, 2025): Current American SingerQ: Name a famous current American singer. Replace the last name with a colloquial term for a person from the place where this singer was born and raised. Say the result out loud. Phonetically, you'll get a form of singing the singer doesn't usually do. Who is the singer and what is the kind of singing?
I realize why I was having trouble with the puzzle. I knew the singer, but the "phonetically" was what threw me. I had to change my pronunciation for the sake of making the puzzle work.
Edit: My hint was
sake referring to Japanese rice wine which is pronounced in Japanese as
sah-keh while English speakers will often say
sah-kee. Likewise the Japanese pronunciation of
karaoke is
kah-rah-oh-keh but English speakers turn it into
care-ee-oh-kee.
A: CARRIE UNDERWOOD, OKLAHOMA (OKIE) --> KARAOKE