--- 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: 2026-10-06T09:39:42.914Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See President Obama Sing 'Happy Birthday' to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b98b0c95-006d-4e32-9dbb-c50e41f06bb5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama Sings "Happy Birthday" to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Sings "Happy Birthday" to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Gzal8jFO.m3u8) (0:38)  _Published 2016-07-05. Flanked by rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Janelle Monae, 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_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 5, 2016 3:40 AM UTC Flanked by rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Janelle Monae, 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 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. ## Transcript [00:00] It just so happens that we celebrate our country's [00:03] birthday on the same day that we celebrate my oldest [00:07] daughter's birthday. So. [ APPLAUSE ] Just a quick [00:10] happy birthday for Malia. [ MUSIC ] [00:19] ( singing happy birthday [00:24] song ) Thank [00:32] you everybody, God bless you, God bless America ```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":"2026-10-06T09:39:42.914Z","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":"https://time.com/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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama Sings \"Happy Birthday\" to Malia at the White House Fourth of July Party","description":"Flanked by rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Janelle Monae, 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","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Gzal8jFO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-07-05T14:33:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Gzal8jFO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/","duration":"PT38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4392807/president-obama-malia-birthday-white-house-fourth-july/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```