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A quiz contestant who was previously denied SGP$10,000 (£5,759) for “mispronouncing” Tony Hadley’s name has been awarded the prize money after the singer stepped in.
Muhammad Shalehan, from Singapore, took part in a quiz last month on radio station Gold 905 in which listeners were asked to identify 14 celebrities from clips of them saying the station’s slogan.
After making it on air on April 21, the 32-year-old railway worker was told he had only got 13 answers correct. However, on May 6, another caller gave the same answers as him and was awarded the $10,000 prize. Shalehan contacted the station to enquire why he hadn’t won and was told he had mispronounced Hadley’s name.
The contestant then contacted Hadley’s management company to ask them to help in the matter and he received a video message in response from the Spandau Ballet singer. “You might have had a slight accent but, as far as I’m concerned, you said my name correctly,” he said.
Shalehan sent the video to the station but was only offered $5,000 (£3,506). After receiving feedback from listeners, they reversed their decision earlier today (May 22) and offered Shalehan the full $10,000. “Since Tony Hadley has said that Mr Shalehan said his name correctly, who are we to disagree?” they wrote on Facebook.
Hi everyone, Thank you for all your feedback and posts. We have reached out to Mr Shalehan again to convey that we…
Posted by Mediacorp GOLD 905 on Thursday, May 21, 2020
“My message to Mr Tony Hadley is a big, big, big thank you,” Shalehan told the BBC. “His video was a great, great game-changer.”
Hadley was the lead singer of Spandau Ballet from 1976 to 2017, when he was replaced by 28-year-old Elvis Presley impersonator and actor Ross William Wild. The new singer fronted the band until 2019 when he quit to focus on his own music.
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