The video for Katy Perry’s "Birthday" features her disguised as five different characters at birthday parties. The concept presents Perry as a group of deliberately over-the-top entertainers whose identities are hidden from the party guests.
The characters include Goldie, an elderly dancer; Yosef Shulem, a flamboyant master of ceremonies; Kriss, an inept clown; Ace, an animal trainer; and Princess Mandee, a children’s entertainer and face painter. Perry used costumes, prosthetic makeup, wigs, accents, and character acting to make the disguises difficult to recognize.
Released in 2014, "Birthday" was the fourth single from Perry’s album Prism. The music video was directed by Marc Klasfeld and Danny Lockwood and used hidden-camera-style footage at real celebrations. The number five refers to the characters Perry portrayed, not the number of people at the parties or the number of costumes used during the entire production.