Birthdays, candles and turning 18
Thirty songs to play between the cake, the toast and the dance floor, plus ideas for the party and for what to write in the card. And if you want to give something nobody else can: a brand-new song with their name in it.
Blow them out, Hannah, the road starts here
The party playlist
Each group fits a moment of the night, from the toast to the last dance. Most of them also work as songs to dedicate to your children on any birthday, not just the big one-eight.
When: When the sparkling cider gets poured (they're 18, not 21) and someone has to say a few words. Songs about growing up and the road that starts now.
When: Lights down, candles lit, every phone in the room recording. Upbeat ones everybody can sing along to while the cake gets cut.
When: For the slideshow, or for the note Mom can't read out loud without tearing up halfway through.
When: For the dad who isn't a speech guy but can let a song do the talking: advice, pride and a little where-did-the-time-go.
When: When there are two, three or more of them and the shout-out is for everybody. Great under a family slideshow.
When: After the cake, to get friends, grandparents and cousins moving. The ones that work in a backyard or a rented hall.
These thirty are about somebody else's kids. Number thirty-one can be about yours: their name, the nickname from when they were little, the story the family tells at every birthday.
At the 18th birthday party
Backyard, pizza place or rented hall, most 18th birthday parties have the same six moments. Here's where a song made just for them lands best.
Something upbeat while they come in and everyone cheers. One chorus is plenty, then it's time to eat.
Photos from the crib to senior year, in order, under a single song. Try to keep it under four minutes.
Lights off, the cake comes out and the whole room sings. While the photos get taken, their song starts.
Read your card line, raise a glass of sparkling cider and let the music say the rest. Nobody needs a long speech.
Car keys, a house key of their own or a key necklace: hand it over on the chorus. Tuck the gift page QR code into the box too.
Now it's their friends' turn. And at the end of the night, by popular demand, their song one more time.
From the first candle to the eighteenth: eighteen photos, one a year, play on their own in three or four minutes.
The song comes with a vertical lyric video: put it up on the TV as it is or cut it together with your own photos.
Print a photo from every birthday and hang them in a row. In the middle, the QR code that opens the gift page.
The card
One line for the card, the gift message or the toast. We wrote these as examples: borrow them and swap in your own details.
Two lines at most, short enough to say without notes. The song says the rest.
The nickname, the stuffed animal, the word they got wrong at three: one is enough for the whole room to get it.
Not just the baby stories: tell them what you love about the person they've become.
Song number thirty-one
Tell us about your son or daughter in a few lines; AI writes the lyrics and the music from your details. Before you pay, you hear two complete versions.
An example we made up. A few true lines are all it takes.
Works for kids of any age, grown-ups included.
There's no “18th birthday” or “coming of age” option: pick Birthday and write in the story that they're turning eighteen. The song will start from there.
Festive for the cake, Nostalgic for the slideshow.
The samples below are in English too. If Grandma would rather hear it in Spanish, choose Spanish instead.
Their name and your stories go into the lyrics. We don't imitate real singers and we don't use lyrics from existing songs.
Listen first
Celebrate You, Maya was made for a 30th: listen for the spot where her name gets sung. Ordinary Days shows how small details turn into verses.
Neither one is from a parent to a child. Yours will have your kid's name in it.
Written for Maya's 30th birthday, from her best friend
Written for Ten years of marriage: a gift from Daniel to his wife, Emma
Both were made on this site from the real stories of the people who ordered them, with the names they gave us. The vocals are synthetic.
From parents
Party at our favorite pizza place, thirty people. We played it for him right before the cake: one earbud in, and for two minutes he didn't look up. Then he hugged me in front of everybody.
We made it for her first birthday, but honestly it was for us: a year of sleepless nights, set to music. We're saving it to play again at her 18th.
My daughter was turning thirty and kept saying she didn't want anything. The song had her grandma's tiramisu and the dented Civic she drove at sixteen. She laughed and cried at the same time.
I'm not a speech guy. At the toast I said “everybody listen” and hit play. By the second verse even his buddies were wiping their eyes.
One song for three kids sounded impossible: a verse each and the chorus for everybody. Now they argue over who got the best verse.
For his tenth we put in Little League, the hamster and the grandma who calls him “buddy boy.” He knew it by heart in two days.
We gave her a gold key to our front door right on the chorus. Under it in the box was the gift page QR code: she played the song three times before going back to dance.
Our son is at school in Boston and spent his birthday away from us. We scheduled the gift email for midnight his time. He called us at 12:03.
How it works
You can do it from your phone in one evening, even the week before the party.
Name, age, the nickname you use at home and a story or two. On the form, choose Child, Birthday and the voice.
AI writes the lyrics from your details. Have a read while the music is being made.
A minute or two later you hear two full songs. Want to change the lyrics, genre or mood? Generate again, for a limited number of rounds.
Pay only if you love it. Then the MP3, lyric video, PDF and gift page with its QR code, all set for the party.
Price
One payment, and only after you've heard both versions all the way through.
Birthday song for your kid
FromOffer price$34$69-50%
You don't pay anything until you've heard it.
Questions
The ones we usually get the week of an 18th.
Yes. The lyrics arrive in about a minute and the two full versions a minute or two later. As soon as you pay you can download everything, and you can schedule the gift email for the day of the party.
No: pick Birthday and write in the story that they're turning eighteen, what it means to your family and what you want to wish them. The lyrics will start from there.
Yes. Write everyone's name in the story and one detail for each: the song can give each kid a verse and keep the chorus for all of them. For the relationship, choose Child.
Of course, and it's often the part that gets everyone laughing. Write the nickname and where it came from: the lyrics will use it next to their real name.
Yes. You get an MP3 and a vertical lyric video (MP4). After you pay, the rights we hold in the song pass to you, so you can use it in the party video, on social media or anywhere you like.
Yes. Write in the story who it's from and, if you'd like two voices taking turns, choose Duet. The gift message has room for every name, grandparents included.
Yes: for the song language, choose Spanish (or Portuguese, or Italian). The two sample songs on this page are in English because the people who ordered them wanted them that way.
Yes, for a limited number of rounds: change the lyrics, genre or mood and you get two new versions, and the app shows how many rounds you have left. After payment the song can't be changed and, except in the cases covered by our refund policy, it isn't refundable.
For the moments that aren't birthdays, from the first night home to the wedding day, we have a collection sorted by age.
Make a wish
Write what you'd like to tell your son or daughter on their birthday. We'll do the rest, and you listen before you pay.
You hear both versions first
Blow them out, Hannah, the road starts here
