Family Films Surprise for Teen Daughter’s Birthday—Goes Horribly Wrong

A mom who wanted to share the funny reality of parenting a new teenager ended up going viral for her family’s unique rendition of the Happy Birthday song.

Jodi lives in the United Kingdom with her husband Ben and their children, including daughter Rubi who recently celebrated her 13th birthday.

On April 10, Jodi shared a video of Rubi walking into the sitting room on the morning of her birthday, where balloons and a pile of presents were waiting for her, and her family began gently singing “happy birthday to you.”

But rather than run to her gifts, Rubi instead went to the dresser by the mirror and began doing her hair, with her mom jokingly writing in the caption: “Having a teenager be like…Who cares more about their hair than their presents?”

The video, posted to Jodi’s account @joditurner1706, proved massively popular, racking up more than 3.3 million views—but not for the reason Jodi had expected.

As she told Newsweek: “I expected a few people to say something along the lines of ‘That’s teenagers for ya’ or something along those lines.

“It wasn’t until a good few people started slating our singing that I realized how bad it actually sounded!”

Because, the family’s rendition of a quiet, gentle version of what appears to be the Stevie Wonder version of “Happy Birthday” had commenters in stitches, with thousands commenting on the video.

“What’s with the haunting, eerie rendition of happy birthday?” one asked, as another joked it “sounds like the batteries are running out on the happy birthday.”

“Is it her last birthday?” another asked, while one declared it had the “atmosphere of a funeral.”

One admitted they had “never heard happy birthday sang in minor key before,” while yet another put it: “Why are you haunting her?”

And as one summed it up: “Is everyone scared of her or what?”

Mom Jodi took it all in her stride, admitting “most of the comments made me laugh,” and confirmed her now-teenage daughter ended up having a great birthday.

“She went shopping and had a [chain restaurant] Nando’s with her mates, then came home and had her friends over for a bit,” she said.

She added: “We sang happy birthday to her—with lots of enthusiasm!—with her cake.”

The history of the famous Happy Birthday song is an interesting one: according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the melody was written by sisters Mildred Hill and Patty Smith Hill, but the lyrics were “good morning to all” which they would sing to their students, first published in 1903 in a song book titled Song Stories of the Kindergarten.

In 1924, a modified version appeared in a songbook edited by Robert H Coleman, who changed the lyrics to “happy birthday to you,” and it went on to become a worldwide birthday tradition.

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