--- title: Watch President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia description: Joined by Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monae at the White House, the President sang 'Happy Birthday' to his daughter who turned 18 on July 4 canonical: https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T03:40:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:01.350Z og:title: Watch President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia og:description: His daughter turned 18 this July 4 og:url: https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51518715bee1b840/69889a925f570f8db4b21974/gettyimages-544934012.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-OBAMA-INDEPENDENCE-DAY-JULY 4TH og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia twitter:description: His daughter turned 18 this July 4 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51518715bee1b840/69889a925f570f8db4b21974/gettyimages-544934012.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 5, 2016 3:40 AM UTC  US President Barack Obama hugs his daughter Malia on her birthday during an Independence Day Celebration for military members and administration staff on July 4, 2016 in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama hugs his daughter Malia on her birthday during an Independence Day Celebration for military members and administration staff on July 4, 2016 in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC.MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 5, 2016 3:40 AM UTC He may be the President of the United States, but Barack Obama is also a dad. And, as he said on Monday, at the last White House Fourth of July party before he leaves office, “It’s a job of a father to embarrass his daughters.” Flanked by rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Janelle Monáe, who performed on the night, Obama proceeded to lead the crowd in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” to his eldest daughter Malia, who happens to be born on America’s Independence Day and turned 18 this year. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/"},"headline":"See President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party","datePublished":"2016-07-05T03:40:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:01.350Z","description":"She happened to turn 18 the same day","url":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/","keywords":["Newsfeed","White House","U.S.","Kendrick Lamar","Birthday","President Obama","party","fourth of july","independence day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51518715bee1b840/69889a925f570f8db4b21974/gettyimages-544934012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51518715bee1b840/69889a925f570f8db4b21974/gettyimages-544934012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-OBAMA-INDEPENDENCE-DAY-JULY 4TH","caption":"US-POLITICS-OBAMA-INDEPENDENCE-DAY-JULY 4TH","creditText":"MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/","name":"See President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party"}}]}] ```