It’s 18th September 1996 and Michael Jackson arrives in Warsaw for the HIStory World Tour.
A crowd gathered at the airport to welcome the King of Pop. Among them, a children folk band “Pruszkowicy” who sang the local song “Kukułeczko, gdzie żeś ty bywała”.
One of the children is little Anna Tokaj who is only 8 at the time.
“To this day, I do not know how our director organized it, that we were invited from so many bands all over Poland, it was really a distinction”, recalled Anna Tokaj in a recent interview for Polish local press.
Anna was selected to step out of the line and give Michael a gift: a doll in the local folk costume, the same she was wearing. Michael’s manager then suggested that she come closer and personally hand over the gift. Delighted, Michael thanked her for the gift, and after a while he took her by the hand and walked a few meters on the tarmac.
Anna recalls that the meeting with the King of Pop was accompanied by great emotions. “Everybody started screaming, squealing, they stopped singing. After that, these older bandmates would come up to me, grab my hand, I didn’t know what they were doing, I didn’t understand it,”, adding that there is one thing she still can’t forgive herself for today.
Just before the performance, Anna was told not to take cards or pens with her to the airport, because everyone assumed that Michael would not have time to sign autographs for anyone. However, if she had not listened to this advice, today she would have a souvenir not only in the form of photos. “This man is a symbol for me, because as one of the few Polish women I had the opportunity to be with him like that, many fans would “kill themselves” to be in my place, and I accidentally got there and it is special for me” said Anna.
Anna is now married and proud mother of two children in Pruszków near Warsaw.
