--- title: Viral Olive Garden Man Singing Happy Birthday Is Everything description: Can someone please hand over a Grammy and a Tony to this Olive Garden employee who sang "Happy Birthday" so beautifully? canonical: https://time.com/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/ author: Rachel E. Greenspan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-12-05T15:15:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:06.318Z og:title: The Music of Life Is This Olive Garden Employee Singing Happy Birthday og:description: Enchanting og:url: https://time.com/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Music of Life Is This Olive Garden Employee Singing Happy Birthday twitter:description: Enchanting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Music of Life Is This Olive Garden Employee Singing Happy Birthday by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Dec 5, 2019 3:15 PM UTC by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Dec 5, 2019 3:15 PM UTC It’s time for someone to hand over a [Grammy](https://time.com/5734050/grammy-snubs-surprises-2020-nominations/) and a [Tony](https://time.com/5737234/best-theater-2019/) simultaneously to this [Olive Garden](https://time.com/5306366/anthony-bourdain-marilyn-hagerty/) employee who [sang “Happy Birthday”](https://time.com/5559596/beyonce-diana-ross/) so beautifully. One waiter, Alphonso Nichols, took it upon himself to give a lovely birthday gift via song to two teenagers on their birthdays in Kennewick, Washington. Sisters Hannah and Ella went to the restaurant to celebrate their 17th birthdays with their mom, Amy Haddox, according to [CBS local affiliate KEPR](https://keprtv.com/news/local/video-of-tri-cities-waiter-singing-goes-viral). Bringing over a special birthday [dessert](https://time.com/5623462/ice-cream-challenge-videos/) for the diners, Nichols sang alone in what is likely the best chain restaurant “Happy Birthday” rendition recorded as of late. Haddox shared a video of this songbird in a [now-viral Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/officialtbw/videos/517863252276346/), with nearly 100,000 views. Customers at Olive Garden have even been requesting to sit in Nichols’ section since, according to ABC7 affiliate channel SWFL. “I like seeing the reactions of everyone and seeing the joy that it brings them,” Nichols [told YakTriNews in an interview](https://www.yaktrinews.com/news/meet-the-kennewick-olive-garden-server-with-the-angelic-voice/1148183267). “You never know what impact you have for that person that day.” The server is also working on his own Christian album to be released next year. Listen to the musical magic for yourself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/"},"headline":"The Music of Life Is This Olive Garden Employee Singing Happy Birthday","datePublished":"2019-12-05T15:15:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:06.318Z","description":"We are going to need an album ASAP","url":"https://time.com/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel E. Greenspan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/5744556/olive-garden-happy-birthday/","name":"The Music of Life Is This Olive Garden Employee Singing Happy Birthday"}}]}] ```