Shapiro Wins TV Quiz
30 December, 2025
In which I compete in a Dutch music quiz vs. Dutch speakers – and win! (even though the referee kept trying to get me drunk)
WATCH the EPISODE: https://npo.nl/npo3/top-2000-a-gogo/29-12-2025/VPWON_1365167/video
It’s the week after Christmas – and all through the Netherlands – every Dutch person is watching the Top2000. The list is compiled by the listeners with care (hoping Bohemian Rhapsody will again win fair & square). Seriously, every year there’s a Top 2000 song countdown. Every year it’s the same Number 1 song. And every year, it gets the best ratings. On radio – AND ON TV!
The TV quiz show “Top 2000 a-gogo” airs for the last week of the year. Every episode features 2 contestants. And on 29 December, 2025 – I was contestant Nr. 2. (side note: there’s a separate TV quiz show simply called “The Top 2000.” I’m not on that one.)
The quiz featured me vs. Dutch actress & singer Meral Polat.
The good news: the host is a fellow comedian, Diederik Ebbinge. The bad news: he’s already friends with Meral Polat, because they both played on the Dutch sitcom De Luizemoeder. We are big fans of that series (anyone who has had kids in Dutch schools must agree). So I was geeking out. (I even told Diederik that I mostly know him for his role as a parody TV host in Promenade. So it was fairly disconcerting to see him taking his job seriously.)
Soon I was answering questions about Dutch music – in Dutch. But luckily, MOST songs in the Dutch Top2000 are from the US / UK. And so many are OLD… which is my speciality. James Brown, Michael Jackson, Nirvana. Into The White Stripes, Eminem, and I surprised myself by recognizing a Dua Lipa song.
The final round involved live music being played by Dutch artist Bonno Getz. He took modern lyrics and sang them in the style of old school singers. I was so blown away by his – literally “in your face” performance – it was hard to guess anything. But I managed to get enough correct. And in the end – by a score of 21-17 – I won the Top2000 A-gogo music quiz.
Thanks to Producer Arjan Vlakveld for picking me!
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