American rap superstar Kendrick Lamar brought the house down at Spilt Milk in Canberra, but it was his interaction with a nine-year-old superfan that stole the show.<\/p>\n
Lamar paused his festival set on Saturday night to sing Happy Birthday to a sobbing Kalina Fowler, with the help of tens of thousands of revellers.<\/p>\n
“I was yelling out, it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday, and then Kendrick saw me yelling so he stopped in the middle of the song,” Kalina told ABC Canberra.<\/p>\n
“It was the funnest time ever \u2014 my first ever concert.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kalina Fowler thinks her blue braids helped her stand out in the crowd. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n
The multi-Grammy Award winning artist also presented the Canberra girl with a signed and personalised cap.<\/p>\n
“People want my hat so bad, they tried to give money to me,” Kalina laughed.<\/p>\n
“I said this hat is really priceless so I’m going to keep it for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
“I won’t let nobody touch it.”<\/p>\n
Clips capturing the moment have gone viral on social media.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kendrick Lamar performed at Spilt Milk in Canberra on Sunday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
‘We’ve still been crying’<\/p>\n
Kalina is a member of the Yukkumbruk Dancers and had performed at a Welcome to Country ceremony earlier in the festival.<\/p>\n
She had hoped to meet Lamar backstage but instead watched his set from the crowd on her grandfather’s shoulders.<\/p>\n
“I think Kendrick was a bit surprised at the lyrics a nine-year-old was singing,” her grandfather Robert Palm said.<\/p>\n
“She knew every word.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kalina Fowler was shocked when Kendrick Lamar paused to sing her happy birthday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Kalina has been listening to Lamar’s music for longer than she can remember.<\/p>\n
Her grandmother, Ngunnawal elder Serena Williams, watched on from the crowd in shock as Kalina got her moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
“We were just crying, and we’ve still been crying this morning because we’re just so overwhelmed,” Ms Williams said.<\/p>\n
“Kendrick Lamar has been a face for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth with his political ways of singing about Black Power and the justice issues for Black people around the world.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kalina Fowler with Kendrick Lamar’s cap. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n
Lamar has been the headline act for this year’s Spilt Milk festival, playing in Ballarat, Perth, Canberra and the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
About 50,000 people attended the sold-out Canberra leg, with music lovers braving wet conditions.<\/p>\n
Kalina believes her blue braids helped her catch her idol’s eye.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kalina is a member of the Yukkumbruk Dancers. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
She has described the encounter as the “bestest birthday gift ever”.<\/p>\n
“When I get older and I get kids, I will give my hat to the kids and then they can keep going for generations and generations,” Kalina said.<\/p>\n
“This memory of when I was nine years old is going to stay with me forever.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American rap superstar Kendrick Lamar brought the house down at Spilt Milk in Canberra, but it was his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2666,64,63,192184,2667,134,69844,7766,149999,21233,4125,2668,136,65842,192183,2349,6984,192182],"class_list":["post-348357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-act","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-black-power","tag-canberra","tag-entertainment","tag-fan","tag-festival","tag-happy-birthday","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-live","tag-local-stories","tag-music","tag-ngunnawal","tag-serenaded","tag-show","tag-song","tag-spilt-milk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}