Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley joins Singapore quiz controversy

A Singaporean underground railway worker found an unexpected cheerleader in the lead singer of 1980s band Spandau Ballet after he lost a £5,760 cash prize in a phone-in radio quiz.

Muhammad Shalehan, 32, wrote to Tony Hadley, 59, in desperation after he lost out on the lucrative reward when the radio host on The Celebrity Name Drop competition on Singapore’s Gold 905 told him he had mispronounced Mr Hadley’s name.

Mr Shalehan had prepared for weeks to play the game show, in which the DJ plays a series of 14 one second sound clips of celebrity voices that must be identified by the caller.

He was crushed to be told he had got 13 out of 14 right, only to hear a few weeks later that another player won with exactly the same list of 14 names that he had given.

Facebook users following the show also pointed out the discrepancy but when Mr Shalehan followed up with the station, he was told that "We have reviewed the relevant audio clip of your call and our decision remains final..The name 'Tony Hadley' had been mispronounced," reported the BBC.

Believing he had been judged on his accent, the disappointed young father decided the best judge of the controversial decision had to be Tony Hadley himself.

“The prize money is 10k (Singapore dollars)..it might seems not much for a well off person but as a normal citizen it meant a lot to me,” he wrote in email leaked to Hype & Stuff.

“I have attached the facebook post thread on which if u could be the judge on my pronounciation of your name it wud be great because the judge are adamant on her decision.”

To his surprise, Mr Hadley, who was on lockdown in his home in Buckinghamshire, got in touch with a video message from his living room.

“I’ve listened back to the tape and as far as I’m concerned, you pronounced my name absolutely correctly..so you should be entitled to whatever the prize was,” he said.

The radio station, owned by Mediacorp, Singapore’s media empire, appeared to be unmoved by the singer’s verdict but later told the BBC that they had reached out to Mr Shalehan with the offer of a “goodwill gesture,” believed to be half of the original sum.

Mr Shalehan said he was unsure whether to accept the offer or press on for vindication.  "I don't want myself to be 'oh he gets a bit of money, he shuts up'. I don't want that. I'm not after the money. I'm after the fairness, the equality, the justice of the game,” he said.