The story behind the Happy Birthday Surprise in Manchester

While waiting for the London debut let’s have at what our forum moderator Tonybecks wrote about how Madonna fans succeded to sing Happy Birthday to Madonna in Manchester.

Here comes the whole story:

“First off – full credit to AussieG – it was his idea and he should get the thanks!

We decided it would be best to write a letter and hand it to the sound engineer at the front of the stage on the Saturday night outlining what were trying to do which was basically to get Stuart to play Happy Birthday after Papa Don’t Preach which, together with the flyering, would be enough to get the crowd roaring along with it enough to stop Madonna in her tracks. Gareth put his mobile number on the end of the letter and asked for a call if they were going to agree to it.

Anyway – we got to the venue at 6pm and flier’d everyone in sight which ended up being really successful as virtually everyone thought it was a sweet idea and agreed.
Then Gareth came running up saying that Stuart had just called him, that he had received the letter and that they were all up for it and that Siedah would interrupt the show and he’d then play Happy Bithday for us all to sing a long to.

So – well, basically, that is exactly what happened. Hehe – as I was front row I was able to look back on the ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY‘ sign being held up and as the people with each letter were all different heights it looked just like the HOLLYWOOD sign in the States!

Madonna looked totally shocked and overwhelmed at it and that’s exactly the reaction we had all hoped for. Her speech was pretty much what Gogobillyboy wrote in another thread in the forum, but she did also give a speech about how she had a guardian angel looking over her and how we all each had our own guardian angel.

I then spoke to the sound engineer at the front after the show who told us we had “done a great job” and that until we handed him the letter the previous night there were absolutely no plans to do anything for her birthday!

Anyway – thank you to everyone who took a flyer, to everyone who didn’t sneer at us for trying, to the crappo stewards who managed to let at least one person video the whole birthday thing (hurrah! – watch this space), to everyone who took part and sang along, and most of all to the band who helped us achieve what we thought might be impossible.

Now – fingers crossed they managed to film it for the documentary!!!”
Tonybecks
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