Spandau Ballet star comes to Singapore man's rescue in radio row
A quiz contestant in Singapore has prevailed in a battle with a radio station that denied him a cash prize over his pronunciation of the Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley’s name – after winning support from the celebrity himself.
Muhammad Shalehan emailed Hadley after being refused the S$10,000 (£5,750) prize on the grounds that he had mispronounced Hadley’s name in a competition in which callers must identify celebrities in a sound clip.
In a letter titled “A normal citizen from Singapore needs your dear help, Mr Tony Hadley,” he asked the singer to be the judge.
“To my shock, he replied and even recorded a video endorsing my pronunciation of his name. That was my last fighting chance,” said the 32-year-old train driver.
Shalehan received Hadley’s response in a video message that backed his claim to the prize. “I’ve listened back to the tape and as far as I’m concerned you pronounced my name absolutely correctly,” Hadley, 59, said in the video, which Shalehan posted on Facebook.
Hadley said there may have been a slight accent, “but as far as I’m concerned you said my name correctly, so you should be entitled to whatever the prize was”.
The radio station offered Shalehan a S$5,000 “token of appreciation” for his enthusiasm, but he refused to give in, arguing that even Hadley had stood up for him.
On Friday the station agreed to pay
the full amount and fund a shopping trip too.
“Justice has been served. That’s the most important thing,” Shalehan said.