Kendrick Lamar Stops Show to Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to 9-Year-Old Fan Before Giving Her This ‘Priceless’ Gift
It’s going to be difficult for one young Kendrick Lamar fan to stay humble after his recent show in Australia, where the rapper paused his set to sing “Happy Birthday” to her before gifting her something she wouldn’t trade for the world.
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In an interview with ABC News in Australia posted Sunday (Dec. 14), 9-year-old Kalina Fowler recalled how Lamar noticed her in the crowd at his headlining Canberra Spilt Milk festival slot the day prior. “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,” she told the outlet. “It was the funnest time ever — my first ever concert.”
Videos from the night show how Dot singled out Fowler — who was watching the show from atop her grandfather’s shoulders — and told his crowd, “On the count of three, we’re gonna sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Kalina.”
The hip-hop star and thousands of fans proceeded to do just that as Fowler sobbed happy tears. Lamar then signed a pgLang hat and gifted it to the birthday girl, saying, “She was official from the start, but now she’s super-duper official.”
“People want my hat so bad, they tried to give money to me,” Fowler told ABC News of the present. “This hat is really priceless, so I’m going to keep it for the rest of my life. I won’t let nobody touch it.”
Lamar’s set at the Spilt Milk festival caps off an incredible year for the hitmaker, who headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show and won five Grammys on back-to-back weekends in February. Following his record-breaking Grand National Stadium Tour with SZA, he scored nine new Recording Academy nods — more than any other nominee — ahead of the 2026 ceremony and notched the second-highest hit on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 with “Luther.”
Watch Fowler’s unforgettable exchange with Lamar below.
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