Hundreds of Disney crazed tweens went hoarse Monday night after almost two hours of screaming for the star they'd been waiting weeks or months to see: Raven Symone.

"Are... you... ready?" called a booming voice from backstage, and the replies of "YEAH!" shook the stage and broke the eardrums of parents dutifully taking their kids to the concert as Raven finally emerged from the assortment of tents and trucks backstage. The theme song to Raven's Disney Channel TV show, "That's So Raven," pounded through the speakers as the 22 year old singer, actor and producer came out on stage, greeting an ecstatic crowd of mostly young girls and their parents.

Brightly colored signs were scattered through the audience, declaring everything from "I love Raven," to "Oh snap," her catch phrase from her show. One girl held up a sign declaring it was her eighth birthday, and Raven sang "Happy Birthday" to her and the others with birthdays in the audience.

"We're going to sing 'Happy Birthday' together, like a big family," she said, and the crowd joined in singing, "Happy Birthday dear ya'll."

Eight-year-old Lane and her friend and siblings held up five signs with letters spelling out "R-A-V-E-N." She said she got the idea from watching video of a Jonas Brothers concert. Her parents surprised her and the others with the Raven tickets, and she said she was screaming when she found out.

Marleigh Strickling, 10, was also surprised with tickets by her mother. In fact, she went to the fair with her mom and friend Katie not even knowing she was going to the Raven concert until they walked up to the arena and were told they had front row seats. They said their favorite part of the concert was "Everything."

Parents weren't the only ones giving their kids the gift of concert tickets. Tracy Four, 20, was at the concert with her "little sister," Justice Free, 12, from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

"She is the self proclaimed biggest fan of Raven Symone," Tracy said. "I hear about her every day I see her."

Justice and Tracy were in the first few rows, standing by the stage and screaming to get Raven's attention when she walked near the end of the stage they were on.

"When [Tracy] gave me the tickets I literally cried and screamed," Justice said. She added that the best part of the concert was, "Seeing Raven. Just seeing her is the best part of the concert."

Two girls who love "That's So Raven" were excited to see their favorite Disney Channel star in person, and had come all the way from Saginaw. Allison, 9 and her sister Emily, 6 said that they love Raven because she is a good singer and a good actress. Essence Flores, 8, and her sister Nytalia, 6, were also fans of the Disney show, and were excited to have front row seats. Their favorite song of Raven's was "Double Dutch Bus," a song Raven remade for the movie "College Road Trip."

When the concert was about halfway over, Raven took a break from singing for a few minutes to chat with the audience. Angela Bays, who was near the front row with her kids, shouted out "We came 130 miles to see you. We love you Raven," and she thanked them, commenting on the high gas prices and all the gas it must take to drive that far.

Five lucky girls got to go up onstage with Raven and watch the concert from there, and Raven took the opportunity during the music break to bring them to the front of the stage with her and let them ask her questions.

"Don't be scared," she said with a laugh to Riley, 10, as they walked up to join her on center stage. "I don't smell. Not yet anyway, that's at the end of the show," she joked.

She kept the laughs coming, describing a deleted scene in her recent movie "College Road Trip" where she tackles her costar Martin Lawrence, when Riley asked what the "funnest" part of the movie was. When Raven asked Riley what her favorite part of the movie was, the girl paused for a minute and Raven joked that she was mistaking her movie with the Hannah Montana 3-D concert movie and said, "That's Hannah Montana. I was here first."

When she found out that four of the five girls onstage were ten years old, Raven said "This is the ten convention I swear," and shouted "Shut up," in surprise when one of the girls was named Olivia, her character's name on "The Cosby Show." One of the ten year olds, Mackenzie, asked Raven, "If you could be a psychic would you?" )On "That's So Raven," Raven plays a high school girl who has psychic visions.)

"I believe every female is psychic," Raven said and laughed. The girls went back to the best seats in the house to enjoy the concert close up by the amplifiers that were pounding out music so loud the ground was vibrating and concert staff and parents in the first few rows were wearing earplugs.

The concert wrapped up with some songs from soundtracks Raven had sung on, and as she finished a song from the "Princess Diaries 2" soundtrack she said her goodbyes and came up for a bow, until she remembered she had one more song left. She hadn't sung "Double Dutch Bus" yet, and as the music for almost everyone's favorite Raven song started, cheers rung through the arena for the last time that night.

When it was over, the preteen girls got ready to go home, still pumped on adrenaline from dancing and singing along with the songs. Their voices were tired and their parent's ears were sore but they were happy.

Angela Bays and her kids got ready for the 130-mile trip back home to Grandville, but they got what they came for.

When asked if the trip was worth it, they all responded with an enthusiastic "Yes, we love Raven!" and one of the girls added with a smile, "She's way better than Hannah Montana."

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