Prince arranges singing telegram for Janelle Monae

Janelle Monae received a backstage surprise recently when she had a singing telegram and flowers delivered from her superstar collaborator Prince as a token of his appreciation.

The Purple Rain hitmaker collaborated with soul star Monae on a track for her new album The Electric Lady and he celebrated the record's release this month (Sep13) by arranging a special surprise for the singer.

In video footage filmed for a Revolt TV documentary, Monae is seen looking shocked to find a young man in her dressing room holding a card and flowers and singing to her.

The messenger was reciting Prince's hit Kiss, which had been re-written as a personal tribute to Monae, but she didn't realise the significance of the singing telegram until she asked him, "So where did you come from?"

He replied, "I came from Big Apple Singing Telegrams and this is from Prince" before handing her the card featuring the star's personalised message. She gasped with delight before saying, "Oh my God. Prince sent you here? Are you... kidding me? Oh my God... Prince sent you here! He wrote this too?... Wow this is a message from Prince."

Monae then read out the song lyrics: "You don't have to be Janelle Monae to be electric, you just need to keep your dignity. When your life gets hectic, you don't need experience to get some clout, you don't need friends like Prince to show you what it's all about. You don't have to be rich to be Monae, you don't have to be a witch with a broom of hay. There ain't no particular rhyme that you need to say, you just need a copy of Janelle's Electric Lady."

She added, "Wow. Thank you Prince. Thank you so much. I just want to cry... I just really want to cry right now. This is too much for me to handle."