Ibiza is pronounced "ee beetha" not "ee beetsa".

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Vengaboys - We're Going To Ibiza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfwNvfX5Aic

Why do they pronounce Ibiza as "ee beetsa" in the song instead of the correct pronunciation "ee beetha"?

It’s a Spanish place.

People in Ibiza don’t think they are pronouncing “Ibiza” wrong.

Interesting. I thought it was pronounced with a standard z sound. I think it's pronounced that way in the song "I Took a Pill in Ibiza".

I have only heard the pronunciation "Ee Beetsa", and that's how I say it.

http://spanish.about.com/cs/qa/a/q_lisp.htm


It seems that 'standard' Spanish, as spoken in most of the country, pronounces the letters 'z' and 'c' (before an 'e' or an 'i') as 'th'. However in some regions, such as Murcia, Andalucia and the Canary Islands, these letters are pronounced much the same as in English. This also seems to be true of the Valencian and Catalan versions of Spanish. In Latin America too, the letters 'c' and 'z' are pronounced with an 'English' sound.

Ibiza is a town in the Balearic islands, which maybe part of Spain, but are not in the Spanish speaking part of Spain.

The islands are off the coast of the northeastern corner of Spain and like that corner of mainland Spain the native language is not Spanish, but Catalan ( a Romance language like Spanish, but more akin to French than to Spanish).

The main city of the Catalan region is Barcelona, which the locals pronounce as "Barth-a-lona".

So the question is not "how do you say it in Spanish?", but "how do you pronounce it in Catalan?".

The answer?

Beats the heck outa me.