British singer Engelbert Humperdinck is reflecting on how his shoelace saved his life during his service in his country’s army.
During a recent episode of “The Engelbert Humperdinck Show,” the 90-year-old singer reflected on his time in the British Army, sharing that he enlisted in 1954 when he was 18 years old and that an undone shoelace saved his life.
He explained that, prior to being stationed somewhere, he was hoping he would end up in Cyprus because his friend was already stationed there, but he ended up in Germany.
“The way they choose people and when you’re in training, you form a rank of threes, and the adjutant goes around with the sergeant major, and he goes counts out 24 people. And they’ll say hit Cyprus, Germany, Belgium or whatever it is, wherever you’re going to.”
Humperdinck recalled that when the time came to line up for their assignments, “all of a sudden, I looked down and my bootlace had came undone.”
He took a moment to pause and tie his shoelace, noting that “in the meantime, everybody’s forming into ranks of three.”
“So I ran after I tied my shoelace and stood where I possibly could in the front line, and they started counting Malaya, Cyprus and I was the next one. Germany. I went to Germany. I was just I just missed Cyprus by one.
“I think God was watching over me because, later on, I found out all the people that went to Cyprus never got there. They got killed in an ambush on the way to Nicosia.”
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The singer said it was “unbelievable that I wasn’t in that batch” because he only missed it by one.
He called the time he served in Mulheim, Germany, “an interesting couple of years.”
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Humperdinck, born Arnold George Dorsey, had his big break in the music industry in 1967 with the release of his song, “Release Me,” which reached No. 1 in the U.K.
According to his official biography, Humperdinck has sold more than 140 million records worldwide throughout his career, received four Grammy nominations, a Golden Globe for entertainer of the year and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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“I never thought that. I was just happy to have success at that time,” he told Billboard in June 2017 about celebrating 50 years in the industry. “It was always a question in my head about how long it was going to last.
“If you don’t put out material that’s going to last, you’re not going to last. Over the years, I sold over 150 million records. My music has been my passport to the world, and it’s been amazing for me.”
