When introduced to the stage during The final in 2008, it was one of those defining pop culture moments which everyone remembers exactly where they were, who they were with and, if like us, watch on repeat at least once a week.
At least.
Well, despite many of us consuming the YouTube video of on a daily basis, it’s only just been brought to everyone’s attention that through the tears and powerhouse vocals, Dermot O’Leary genuinely called the biggest superstar of a generation ‘hun’.
The presenter’s affectionate, if not overly personal, pet name for actual Beyonce has gone under the radar for more than a decade, but one fan highlighted the wtaf moment on Twitter, which, unsurprisingly, has sparked quite the reaction.
One fan said they were ‘absolutely howling’ while others couldn’t get over ‘the cheek!’.
Others said they were ‘dying’ and, honestly, same.
Even Queen Bey looks a little taken aback by the familiarity, while Alex is understandably still weeping in her arms because obviously.
Alex won The X Factor that night, beating JLS to the £1million record deal and going onto bag three number one singles and a number one album in the UK.
Over 13 years later, the Bad Boys hitmaker revealed that she ‘winged’ it with Beyonce that night, with Bey wanting to perform her then latest single If I Were A Boy.
Only issue being, Alex didn’t know the words.
‘[Beyonce] walks in and she goes, “Nice to meet you, blah blah blah”. I’m in tears, and I’m just crying the whole time,’ Alex recalled on Angela Scanlon’s BBC series The Noughties.
‘She’s like “Okay”, and then she starts crying and she’s like, “We really need to practice the song, I want you to sing my new single.”
‘I was like, “Sorry, what?” She goes, “Yeah, If I Were A Boy”.’
Eek.
She continued: ‘I said, “You can take every verse you want, just give me a line, but can we sing a song that I know?”
‘We literally blagged it.’
The X Factor has since been cancelled and likely to take a lengthy hiatus from ITV.
However, its predecessor Pop Idol is tipped to be making a huge return to mark 20 years since it ended instead.
