Weird pronunciation of the word "of" in Russians by Sting

Question

The song Russians by String contains the following line:

Regardless of ideology

I listened to the song dozens of times by now, and Sting pronounce the word "of" in that sentence in a way that sounds like "vai". I kept listening, and just couldn't figure any logical reason for this.

I thought it might be "by", but "Regardless by ideology" doesn't make sense as well. (And no results in a search.)

Does anyone have any idea why String pronounce it in this way?

Answer 1

(caveat: I'm not a native English speaker)

Your are not mistaken, there is a "vai". Actually, what I hear is:

regardlessovi[pause]deology

Your "vai" is actually the end of "of" (pronounced with an ending /v/) directly bound to the "i" (pronouced /aɪ/) of "ideology".