So you want to learn how to say happy birthday in Spanish? I will show you the proper ways on how to say it (and sing it) in Mexico and Spain.

I lived 2 years in Mexico City (the heart of Mexico) and while I was there, I was involved in a lot of happy birthday songs. The most common way to say it in Mexico and in Spain is: "feliz cumpleaños". This is pronounced: "fay lease coom play anyos".

As far as singing happy birthday goes, there are two main ways to sing it:

In Spain, they use a very simplistic version (very similar to how we sing it in English):

Cumpleaños Feliz, Cumpleaños Feliz, Te deseamos todos, Cumpleaños Feliz

However, in Mexico, we would sing it like this:

Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el rey David. Hoy por ser tu cumpleaños, te las cantamos a ti. Despierta, mi bien, despierta; mira que ya amaneció. Ya los pajarillos cantan; la luna ya se metió.

Those are the two main songs on how to sing happy birthday in Spain and in Mexico. The song from Mexico is definitely a lot more complex and harder to memorize. With that being said, I would try to listen to a few audio files of the song before you attempt to learn it. It's important that you learn the tune of the song as it has a rather upbeat tempo to it.

I would highly recommend memorizing both of these if you plan on learning the Spanish language. You don't want to sit there twiddling your thumbs while everyone is singing, that won't look good as birthdays are a huge event in Spanish countries. You will definitely gain respect if you know how to say happy birthday in Spanish.

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