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The most recognized song in the English language is "Happy Birthday to You" (the common song sung on someone's birthday). What songs in Spanish are traditionally sung on birthdays (and what are the lyrics)? Are there a handful that are most common, or does every country tend to have its own?

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I am closing this for two reasons. 1) It's essentially a list question. And 2) It's really a culture question, and not a Spanish-language question. A similar question might do better on the proposed Latin American Culture site. – Flimzy♦ Feb 4 '12 at 7:24
@Flimzy: Good point. Culture and language often overlap (I wouldn't consider someone 100% fluent in Spanish if they didn't know how to sing along on someone's birthday), but otherwise this doesn't have much to do with the language specifically. – jrdioko Feb 4 '12 at 16:56
Yes, you're right that language and culture go hand in hand. But even so, asking this same about English-language birthday songs on English L&U I'm sure would be closed as off-topic. Culture is a huge area of study, and while it does have some overlap with language, it is much broader than any language site ought to try to cover. :) – Flimzy♦ Feb 4 '12 at 17:43

closed as not constructive by Flimzy♦ Feb 4 '12 at 7:22

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

There are heaps of different ways to sing the Happy Birthday Song and they are regional. When I attend my University's Spanish Club and it's someones birthday everyone starts singing a different song. (But in the end we usually sing the first version I list here, probably due to the ethnicities of the people at the club.)

In Argentina I sang:

Que los cumplas feliz,

Que los cumplas feliz,

Que los cumplas a (name),

Que los cumplas feliz.

But there are many variations, sometimes a completely different song, sometimes only slightly different.

Feliz Cumpleaños a tí

Feliz Cumpleaños a tí

Feliz Cumpleaños a (name)

Feliz Cumpleaños a tí

Another one:

Cumpleaños feliz

cumpleaños feliz

te deseamos (name)

cumpleaños feliz.

A Colombian friend sung this:

Que los cumpla feliz,

que los vuelva a cumplir,

que los siga cumpliendo,

hasta el año 3000.

Sorry I don't know which regions sing which songs, if anyone does feel free to edit the post.

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up vote 3 down vote

In Mexico we sing "las mañanitas":

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David, hoy por ser tu cumpleaños te las cantamos a ti, despierta (name) despierta mira que ya amaneció, ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió.

This short version is what usually people sing.

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up vote 4 down vote

In Spain, we usually sing the Happy Birthday song with the following lyrics:

Cumpleaños feliz
cumpleaños feliz
te deseamos (name) OR te deseamos todos
cumpleaños feliz.

There is another one, which apparently was composed by Emilio Aragón (Miliki, a famous clown), called Feliz en tu día:

Feliz, feliz en tu día
amiguito que Dios te bendiga
que reine la paz en tu día
y que cumplas muchos más.

See a video with Miliki and family singing it.

It is quite known, probably because these clowns' show was very famous back in the day, but not used very much.

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Cumpleaños feliz, cumpleaños feliz, te desean tus amigos de Parchís ;) (song usually heard in pubs when it's the birthday of someone) – Juanillo Feb 3 '12 at 8:04

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