It’s True... Tony Hadley helps wronged quizzer win Gold
WHEN a listener was told he hadn’t won a radio station’s quiz because he had pronounced a pop star’s name wrongly, he received some helpful backing – from the singer himself.
The intervention by Tony Hadley, of 1980s band Spandau Ballet, caused bosses to change their minds and finally award train driver Muhammad Shalehan the £5,760 cash prize.
Mr Shalehan, 32, had been taking part in the Celebrity name Drop competition run by Singapore station Gold 905 – which could have been a good omen, given that Spandau Ballet’s hits include Gold. And also True...
But he was told that despite identifying 14 famous voices from one-second clips, he had mispronounced Hadley’s name and so the prize went to someone else.
Feeling hard done by, the father of three wrote to the singer. ‘I would have thought Tony Hadley had better things to do than reply to me,’ he admitted. ‘To my shock, he replied and even recorded a video endorsing my pronunciation of his name.’
In the video, 59-year-old Hadley, who is in lockdown at his Buckinghamshire home, says: ‘I’ve listened back to the tape, and as far as I’m concerned, you pronounced my name absolutely correctly.’
Hadley says there may have been a slight accent, but ‘you should be entitled to whatever the prize was’.
The radio station yesterday agreed to pay out, and fund a shopping trip.
Hadley told the BBC Mr Shalehan had won ‘fair and square’. ‘I did listen to it several times, to be really, really sure. And I thought – hold on, this guy is genuine, it’s a lot of money, he’s done incredibly well to get to that point,’ he said.