Somali-Canadian troubadour K'naan has lent his talents to a Western Union campaign to revive the singing telegram. American musicians Snoop Dogg and Timbaland and Indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan are also participating in the Western Union initiative to bring the singing telegram into the digital age.

The telegrams, free right now in a pilot program, are a do-it-yourself affair. Those who sign on at the site can choose their artist and select from a range of musical riffs (Happy Birthday etc), then they are meant to sing along with K'naan to create the telegram. A video clip on the microsite walks the user through it. The song is then sent via e-mail. Western Union plans to make the telegrams fairly cheap - $2 or $3 - when the service goes into effect.

Toronto rapper K'naan can sing Happy Birthday to your Mom. (Canadian Press)

Singing telegrams have been around since 1933, when Western Union operator Lucille Lipps sang a birthday greeting from a fan over the telephone to singer Rudy Vallee. But when long-distance phone rates fell to the point that most folks would just call, demand for singing telegrams dwindled. The company suspended the service from 1974 to 1980, though other companies had fun with sending out costumed employees to sing, dance, deliver balloons or strip as they got the message across.

The lure for K'naan, known for his charity work for Haiti and Africa, is probably the other half of Western Union's image update, seen in the video above. Its World of Betters campaign involves asking for submissions of what you would do to make someone's life better with $1,000. K'naan focuses his campaign on education, saying "My better gave the kids of Johannesburg the power they need to learn."

-- Susan Noakes