I Wanna Say Happy Birthday To You / "The Birthday Song" by Halla

Submission 2,353

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

I Wanna Say Happy Birthday To You or "The Birthday Song" by Halla is an original birthday song by TikToker Isaiah Jaay meant as an alternative to the traditional "Happy Birthday to You" song. In June 2023, the TikToker uploaded a video of a group of people singing the song on someone's birthday, resulting in numerous videos reacting to the song and praising it over the following months, including videos where footage of someone's birthday is set to the song.

Origin

On June 20th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @isaiahjaay1 posted a video of a group of people, including himself, singing an original birthday song to a woman, garnering over 4.1 million views in three months (shown below).

@isaiahjaay1 YES THIS IS ME SINGING THE LEAD YALL😭 with my family Tuffcrowd. Yall been tagging me everywhere and I’m so grateful. We working on getting the full version on all platforms ASAP. #happybirthdaysong #happybirthday #isaiahjaay #fyp #juneteenth #blackfamily #blackpeople #blackpeoplebelike #choir #steviewonder ♬ original sound – Isaiah Jaay

I wanna say happy birthday to you (To you, oh)
I wanna say happy birthday to you (You)
I wanna say happy birthday to you (To you, oh)
I wanna say happy birthday to you (You)

(Uh, let's go!)
Now, close your eyes
And make that wish (Make that wish)
Think about it (Ay), and blow out your candles

Spread

The song became increasingly popular on TikTok over the following months, inspiring over 43,000 uses under its original sound in three months. On July 23rd, 2023, TikToker^[2] @quyanavoss663 posted a video of a young girl blowing out her candles while the song plays, garnering over 30 million views in two months (shown below, left). On July 24th, TiKToker^[3] @carterswavee posted a similar video, garnering over 8 million views in two months (shown below, right).

@quyanavoss663

♬ original sound – Isaiah Jaay

@carterswavee 🎂🥳 #fyp #fypシ #babiesoftiktok #foryou #toddlersoftiktok ♬ original sound – Isaiah Jaay

On August 27th, TikToker^[4] @misterio_queen posted a video of a woman on her 104th birthday set to the song, garnering over 7 million views in two weeks (shown below). On September 10th, TikToker^[5] @benedict_cua posted a video to the sound that gained over 800,000 views in five days.