Madonna Thanks Audience for Birthday Serenade, Offers Gratitude to Band & Crew, Says She Feels "Lucky"

Kevin Mazur/WireImageMadonna has the day off on Thursday, her 54th birthday, so the audience at her concert Wednesday night in Oslo, Norway celebrated early, serenading her with "Happy Birthday" and waving signs. In a YouTube video of the moment posted on her Facebook page, Madonna humbly thanks her fans, her band, her dancers and everyone for their good wishes.

"I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday," she said to cheers. "To be onstage, dancing, singing, making people smile." She added, "I know that when it's your birthday, everyone wants to give you a present but for me, this is the best present you can give me."

The star went on to tell the audience that she felt so "so lucky," even though she knows it's "a cliche" to say so. "Here I am surrounded...I'm working with my children, [my son] Rocco, my daughter's working in wardrobe, and then I have this family behind me onstage, they're my beautiful family, they love me and I love them." She went on to praise her crew as her family as well, and added, "I couldn't do my show without them. On my birthday, I wanna express my gratitude to every one of them...security, dancers, singers, musicians."

Madonna also gave a special shout out to Kalakan, a musical group from the Basque region of France who performs onstage with her as part of the MDNA tour. She told the crowd that exactly a year ago, they had performed for her on her birthday. She said, "They blew me away and I said, 'Oh my God, I gotta go on tour with them.' And here they are!"