An online exchange between two women across the Prairies has caught the attention of a Canadian icon.
It all started when Winnipeg’s Rita Gordon turned to Twitter on Feb. 6 to send out her first-ever tweet. It was directed at Jann Arden, hoping to attract the attention of the artist after Gordon was priced out of buying tickets for the singer’s Manitoba show.
But it wasn’t Arden who initially noticed the tweet; Pauline Ehle from Lloydminster, Alta., came across it and decided to buy a fourth-row ticket for Gordon.
Ehle said she “just kind of did it” because she had been in the same situation in the 90s when she was a new Arden fan.
“At that time, I couldn’t afford to go to one of her concerts, so now I thought, ‘Well, I’m having a good month, why not?'” Ehle said Sunday.
“I did not expect it to go this way,” Gordon said, who has never seen Arden in concert. “I’m really grateful, I’m really thankful. This was not a need, this was a definite want. Wow.”
Then, the unexpected happened.
Arden noticed the exchange and reached out to Ehle, offering to meet up with her.
“I am still numb,” said Ehle. “I’ve loved Jann for the longest time, admired her, and have a lot of respect for her and what she does.
“For her to actually reach out, that was amazing.”
Ehle has tickets to three upcoming Jann Arden shows: Saskatoon, Calgary and Lethbridge. She told Arden she would like to meet the singer at the Saskatoon show because she has seen the singer there before and enjoyed the venue.
“I really didn’t expect anything from this,” Ehle said. “It was just something in my heart that I wanted to do.”
Jann Arden’s 2020 tour kicks off March 15 in Saskatoon — the show at which she is set to meet up with Ehle.
The Juno-award winning singer will visit every province during the tour.