Madonna's gets pre-birthday serenade

Washington, Aug 4 : Queen of pop Madonna arrived at her hometown Michigan on August 2 for a screening of her acclaimed documentary I Am Because We Are and got a surprise when fans sang "Happy Birthday."

The screening took place at the Fourth Annual Traverse City Film Festival, where Madonna with daughter Lourdes, introduced her documentary about orphans in Malawi.

"You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can't take the Michigan out of the girl," E!online quoted her as telling the crowd of 540 people.

"There's something poetic about coming back to the place where I used to come for holidays-camping trips with my dad and stepmother and my very large family. It's great bringing my movie to a place that I feel familiar.

"I don't get here enough," added Madonna.

Madonna, who was raised in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, was at the six-day event honouring independent films with co founder and Michigan native Michael Moore.

"She has such an incredible heart and such a generous spirit," he said.

"She does so much out of the glare of the lights to make the world a better place," he added.

Madonna's documentary was produced, written and narrated by her, and it is about the plight of children orphaned by AIDS in Malawi, the African country where she and husband Guy Ritchie adopted a son, David, in 2006.

Ritchie did not attend the festival, and Madge was accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, the film's director, Nathan Rissman, and her father, Silvio Ciccone, and stepmother, Joan.

After the screening, fans sang "Happy Birthday" to the star, who turns 50 on August 16.

ANI