3 Artists to get you into Vpop

Even as an avid listener of Vietnamese music, I have to admit it’s a little hard to get into Vpop these days. It doesn’t really help that the music videos are sort of cheesy and the songs are liberally sprinkled with questionable Engrish rapping. There are some exceptions though and here are some artists that I believe will have you taking a closer listen to this often overlooked music genre.

1. My Tam

 

 

 

My Tam is the reigning "Queen of Vpop" and one of my favorite singers. She is a wonderful technically trained singer and a great dancer as well. She's been on the music scene for almost a decade and she's still as popular as ever. In fact, she is such a good singer that she was chosen to represent Vietnam in 2004 at Asia Song Fest. I can't even begin to start to list all of her music because she's released so much material and all while touring the country and having sold at concerts almost every night.

Recommended Listening

"Uoc gi" is really her breakout song that started her career.

Here is "Chuyen Nhu Chua Bat Dau", one of her newer songs.

3. Hồ Ngọc Hà

 

 
I am somewhat divided over Hồ Ngọc Hà. On one hand, she is a good performer, dancer, and her music is very accessible. On the other hand, she has a tolerable recorded voice which translates into her sounding not so good live. She was originally famous as a model having first made her mark by winning several beauty pageants. Some of you might know her already since in 2009 she represented Vietnam at Asia Song Festival.


Recommended Listening 
"Xin Hay Thu Tha" is probalby one of her most famous and popular songs. It was so popular that the year it came out literally everybody was performing as their audition song on Vietnam Idol.

"Lang Tham Mot Tinh Yeu" is a duet she sang with Thanh Bui, a contestant on an Australian singing contest.

"Hãy Nói Với Em" is one of her newer songs. I really like the storyline and the music video is just stunning.

4. Noo Phước Thịnh

 

Probably one of the younger singers on this list, he was initially discovered because of his good looks but he soon proved to be a talented singer as well. I like the emotion he brings to his songs plus his willingness to experiment with his music. He hasn't been on the music scene that long so there's not as much of his stuff to listen to but the stuff that is out there is really good.

Recommended Listening
Check out his ballad version of "Nỗi Nhớ Đầy Vơi".

If you have time listen to the duet version of this song where he's a featured singer with Hồ Ngọc Hà. 

Some other good songs include "Lặng Thầm" which contains a somewhat strange interpretive dance and a little too much eyeliner but is quite enjoyable if you can look past that and enjoy the music.

His musical direction has changed with the release of his second album with the songs having a smoother  and more elegant feel. I sort of miss the raw emotion in the old songs but in exchange the production budgets for the music videos seems to have gone up. The music video for "Lạc Bước Trong Đêm" definitely benefited from the extra money except for the fact that I still can't quite understand who thought that dying his hair blond was a good idea.