As senior Joe Novak stands with senior Kyleigh Daiker waiting for the Madonna concert to begin, the excitement starts to kick into overdrive. All of his hard work is finally paying off.

When Novak heard that local radio station Z 104.3 was hosting a dance contest to win tickets to her concert, he jumped on the opportunity.

“I had three days to learn the choreography that Madonna performs at her concert, find a costume, and film the dance,” Novak said.

As soon as Novak decided he was going to film the dance, he immediately was able to visualize what he wanted the video to look like. “I really wanted it to be dramatic, so I knew we had to film it in the street at night with big lights,” Novak said.

To make the video very “dramatic,” Novak decided to film it outside at night and use headlights from cars as lighting. Because of road work being done on his street, Novak had to do his dance in his drive way instead of the street.

Novak found out that he had won the contest right after school on Friday, Sept. 21.

“I started freaking out right outside the entrance to John Carroll, and some of the other kids were definitely looking at me, slightly frightened,” Novak said.

The day of the concert, Sept. 24, Novak found himself in a situation that he was not pleased about. As he was about to leave his house, he realized that he had lost the tickets. Novak frantically called the radio station and they got him brand new seats in the front row.

After Madonna performed two or three songs, management asked Novak and Daiker to move into the “Golden Triangle,” which was a section that was closed off to the public.

“We basically ended up being able to touch the stage, and were only three feet away from Madonna,” Novak said.

For Novak, “winning the contest and seeing Madonna in concert was a dream come true, and an experience of a lifetime.”

Shannon Olsen is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.