Tyler Perry Explains Why He Doesn’t Like People To Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ On His 46th Birthday

Tyler Perry has recently generated buzz for a touching video tribute Perry created for Bobbi Kristina Brown. Today, the prolific writer and filmmaker is once again getting plenty of attention. That’s because Tyler celebrates his 46th birthday on Sunday, September 13. On the occasion, Perry explains to his Facebook and Twitter followers why the singular voice of someone singing “Happy Birthday” to him initially makes the actor feel sad. The feeling is short-lived, until he recalls the memorable words of his late mother, advising Perry to count his blessings.

Tyler Perry explains further in an email sent to his email list subscribers with the title, “I really don’t like people singing Happy Birthday to me.”

“Every morning that I can remember until I was 41, I woke up to the voice of my mother singing “Happy Birthday” to me. Be it when I was a kid in my room or when I was older and had moved away, she would call on the phone and sing her heart out. How I miss her voice, off key and all… lol. All of that to say that anytime I hear some individual sing it to me, it reminds me that she’s not here anymore. Sure saying it is fine, but the song… well, hearing it sung by one person makes me sad. I don’t mind a group singing it so much, but one singular voice haunts me.”

Perry, a man who has been called a force of nature as ‘Madea’ — as the Albany Times Union? called Perry in a review of his latest new play, “Madea on the Run” — then describes doing something that plenty of folks who’ve lost a loved one can relate to.

“Just by natural reflex I woke up this morning, being half asleep, I reached for the phone to see if she had left a message, but then I realized that she died 6 years ago. In the split second that it took me to wake up fully I felt a wave of sadness come over me. Then, I heard her voice in my head saying “Baby, count your blessings. God is good.” My tinge of sadness went immediately into a prayer of praise.”

In spite of moments of grief on his birthday, Perry seems hopeful upon remembering all of his heavenly blessings, just as his mother instructed Tyler Perry to remember.

“Thank you for my mother. Thank you that she taught me how to pray to you. God thank you for another year. God thank you for loving me. God thank you for blessing me. God thank you for my beautiful son. God thank you that his life is restoring mine to joy. God thank you for the blood of Jesus that allows me to be forgiven and helps me to overcome.”

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment]