Welsh crooner Tom Jones made some headlines surrounding his performance with Ed Sheeran at the AFL grand final in Melbourne on Saturday but when fans around the world saw his name trending on Twitter, some assumed he had died.
It seems that some fans on social media were unaware the 74-year-old had taken the stage at the grand final to perform some of his hits, including a new version of ‘Delilah’, and when they saw his name some jumped to the wrong conclusion.
“I’ll admit: When I saw #tomjones trending, I clicked just to make sure he wasn’t dead. Phew!,” wrote one Twitter user. “Glad it’s not unusual to assume Tom Jones is dead when you see him trending. It’s not unusual because it’s apparently done by everyone,” added another.
Sir Tom was also involved in a few other minor controversies over the weekend, including referring to the AFL teams as “rugby players” and reports claiming he apparently called former AFL star Campbell Brown a ‘dickhead’ during a prematch interview on national television.
Some even took issue with Jones’ choice to perform his 1968 hit ‘Delilah’ in his pre-game set, due to the song’s lyrics which detail acts of domestic violence. AFL commentator and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, no stranger to controversy himself, criticised the song choice on Triple M radio this morning.
“Obviously at the moment domestic violence is a massive issue in world sport. In the National Football League in America they are getting absolutely smashed because of their tin-eared approach to domestic violence,” he said on air. “It was an inappropriate song in 2014.”
Glad it’s not unusual to assume Tom Jones is dead when you see him trending. It’s not unusual because it’s apparently done by everyone.
— J.Nickels (@LeVoxPopuli) September 27, 2014
I’ll admit: When I saw #tomjones trending, I clicked just to make sure he wasn’t dead. Phew!
— Kris Pickel (@KrisPickelNews) September 28, 2014
