Jenny Trang

Jenny Trang (1967-    ) is an overseas Vietnamese singer of African-American and Vietnamese descent.

Born on June 6, 1967 in Saigon, South Vietnam to an African-American military serviceman father and a Vietnamese mother, Jenny Trang is the eldest in a family of five children.  In 1973, her American father returned to his homeland upon the U.S. withdrawal of troops in South Vietnam.  After the Fall of Saigon, her mother and her three youngest siblings left Vietnam to resettle in West Germany while Jenny and one younger sister were left in the care of her maternal grandparents in Ho Chi Minh City.  Although Jenny had grown up in a sheltered and rather well to do family, she was not spared from discrimination that the general population of Vietnam had toward Amerasian children from the Vietnam War.  Like many other Amerasians, Jenny experienced endless teasing and name calling from other kids at school just for looking different.  During these difficult years, she found solace through music.

As a child, Jenny loved listening to music and singing along to it.  Her incessant singing earned her quite a bit of notoriety in her neighborhood as she was dubbed as Carol Kim II due to her similar pigmentation to the famous singer and having an unusually powerful, soulful voice at such a young age.  When Jenny was a teenager, she began singing with a local band.  By the time she was 18, Jenny Trang was no longer an aspiring singer but had now turned into an established professional singer performing nightly at such major venues around Saigon like Phuong Hong, which was the cabaret owned by singer Phuong Hong Que, Maxim's, Palace and Dam Sen.  Her electrifying singing voice coupled with her statuesque figure made her extremely popular in Saigon's nightlife cabaret circuit.

In 1992, Jenny Trang, her then husband, fellow entertainer Thanh Le whom she had married shortly prior to her exit from Vietnam, all arrived in the United States under the Amerasian Homecoming Act where they would began their new lives as Americans.  Her younger sister, Hoang, resettled in Boston, Massachusetts while Jenny and Thanh Le wounded up in Orange County, California, home of the largest Vietnamese community in the United States known as Little Saigon.  Immediately, Jenny Trang and Thanh Le resumed their careers as performers in the Vietnamese community with the formation of their band called Horizons playing for mainly weddings and parties.  An introduction by longtime friend and mentor, singer Chung Tu Luu, would soon follow resulting in a recording contract for Jenny Trang with Hai Au Productions.  In 1993, Hai Au Productions released 4 songs from Jenny's very first studio recording on an album entitled as Niêm Đau Chôn Dấu which also featured two other up and coming Amerasian singers, Randy and the late Luu Quoc Viet.  Although sales of this album were dismal, it gave Jenny Trang just enough exposure in the overseas Vietnamese music industry and caught the attention of the owner of Mây Productions.  During the beginning of the following year, Jenny Trang appeared on volume 7 of the popular live show music video series, Hollywood Night, which is produced by Mây Productions.  Her performance of Kiếp Con Lai, a moving song written by Trinh Phuc Viet Toan about the plight of Amerasians from the Vietnam War, was perhaps one of the most poignant performances in the history of overseas Vietnamese music video production.  Viewer audiences were moved to tears which coincided with Jenny Trang's heartfelt delivery of the sad lyrics to the song.
 

Jenny Trang on Hollywood Night 7
performing her signature song, Kiếp Con Lai 

The overwhelming responses from viewer audiences on her performance of Kiếp Con Lai coupled with the dismantling of her marriage to Thanh Le prompted Jenny Trang to produce her own studio album of the same name two years later which would feature a re-recorded version of the title track along with a selection of sad songs about heartbreak and lost love. Among Jenny Trang's solo tracks recorded for the album include Điên written by Y Vu, a remake of singer Kim Anh's signature song, Anh Ở Đâu, and Bão Tình written by Khuc Lan.  Released under the music label, Bien Productions, Kiếp Con Lai the album, also featured special guest appearances by other artists such as Hoang Liem, Diem Lien and Duy Quang, each having contributed solo tracks on this first self-produced project by Jenny Trang.  On November of 1996 to commemorate the release of Kiếp Con Lai the album, Jenny Trang held a highly successful one-night engagement at the prestigious Majestic Nightclub in Huntington Beach, California where she performed in front of a sold out crowd.

As Jenny Trang's popularity grew, the busier her performing schedule became.  For many years during the 1990s, Jenny Trang toured extensively performing at live shows for Vietnamese communities in various major cities throughout the United States.  When she wasn't performing out of town, she could been seen as a regular headliner at local Vietnamese cabarets around Orange County such as The Can Club and Tao Nhan Cafe.  Impressed with the critical praises and profitable sales of Kiếp Con Lai the album, the owners of the Bien Productions music label had plans of a duet album for Jenny Trang with singer Tuan Ngoc.  That along with other plans for a European concert tour were abruptly put to a halt during the summer of 1998 as Jenny Trang left many of her fans shocked when she decided to retire from the music business and start a family of her own.    

In 2009 after a hiatus that lasted for more than a decade, Jenny Trang made a brief return to her career in music.  She accepted an invitation from the Gia Dinh My Viet organization to go on tour in various states performing at live shows to raise funds for Amerasians and their families still living in Vietnam.  On this tour, Jenny Trang shared the stage with several other well-known Amerasian singers such as Randy, Lilian, Ngoc Anh and Van Anh.  In the spring of 2010, Jenny Trang and Randy headlined at the swanky Tieng Xua Cabaret in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  

Married to John McQuerry, an Anglo-American who speaks perfect Vietnamese, since 1998, she now goes by the name, Jenny McQuerry, and is a mother of three lovely daughters.  She makes her home in Chandler, Arizona where she is part-owner of a manicure salon.