Looks can be deceiving in Vietnamese stores. While albums may appear western they contain purely Vietnamese songs.
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| Singers Dong Nghi and Noo Phuoc Thinh. |
The album titled “Ngay Hom Qua La The” (That’s Yesterday) may be in Vietnamese but its styling certainly isn’t. Singer Ngoc Anh, the runner up at the first Vietnam Idol contest in 2008, is the artist behind it but the rest of the credits are distinctly western.
The album clearly lists, in English, Art Direction, Make Up etc. Yet get beyond this western façade and inside it features only old Vietnamese songs.
The 7th album by singer Lam Vu opts instead for a French title on the cover – Aie confiance à mon amour (Let’s believe in your love) though it has not one French, or any other, foreign song.
Quang Ha’s “Miss You” album has only two English words used. All songs in the album are in Vietnamese.
Besides using English or French words on the covers, some singers have westernised their products by adding English words into the song. For example, Hamlet Truong’s “Yeu khong hoi tiec” (No sorry in love) has the sentence “Vi khi da you la khong can phai noi I’m sorry” (When you are in love you don’t have to say I’m sorry.
Singer Dong Nhi also adds “Baby don’t leave me alone” into her Vietnamese song named “Boi Roi”. Others use rappers to add English words.
Composer Nguyen Hong Thuan explained: “Perhaps they only want to make their works a little bit strange to capture the audience’s ears. But I don’t like this style in music. I’m uncomfortable listening to ‘sorry, miss you or need you’ in Vietnamese songs”.
Several Vietnamese singers also imitate the style, costumes and dances of foreign pop stars.
Foreign names
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| Singer Wanbi Tuan Anh. |
The time when Vietnamese singers using Chinese Vietnamese names like Chan, Dam, Ung, Nhat, Van, Thien has passed. The new trend is having western, Korean or Japanese names.
Among Vietnamese artists who bear foreign names, there are a few who are overseas Vietnamese or who have a foreign mother or father.
While singer, Nenita L. Feria has actually stuck with her original name, others have added foreign words to their names, such as Hamlet, Akira, Kiwi, Noo, Bambi, Jinni, Baby and Takej. Hearing these names, the audience should think that they are watching foreign singers.
Ngoc Hanh from the Lac Hong Recording Centre said most album covers are designed by artists at the request of singers.
Composer Vu Quoc Viet said that in the past there were some songs that have several foreign words and some singers used foreign names but it has become a popular trend among young singers.
“I think that this is a syndrome, a fashionable trend which will end soon because an album will still fail if the singer sings badly or their songs are not good even though they use foreign names or add foreign words to the songs,” Viet said.
VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre
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