Born as Viktor Lassley on July 1, 1972 in Saigon, South Vietnam to a Anglo-American father and a Vietnamese mother, Thien Phu was raised primarily outside of Vietnam as an only child. At the age of 16, after a chance meeting with one of his idols, the late legendary Vietnamese pop singer Ngoc Lan, who had invited him to appear on her music video as a backup dancer, he then considered a career in Vietnamese entertainment.
While in his early twenties in the 1990s, Thien Phu embarked on a singing career starting out performing for local Vietnamese bands in Orange County, California. This led to performing regularly at Vietnamese cafes, bars, nightclubs, and professional shows throughout the United States and abroad. He quickly found his niche with Vietnamese audiences singing in French, a language he had first acquired as a young child when he had lived in New Caledonia right after leaving Vietnam.
With the encouragement from several Vietnamese singers he had befriended, particularly Julie (Julie Quang) and the late Anh Tu, Thien Phu decided to record his first CD sometime in the mid 1990s. What would take a total of almost 2 years to produce in which Thien Phu had collaborated with some of the biggest names among Vietnamese musicians including the late legendary Tung Giang, Alan Nguyen and Sy Dan would finally be released under the label, Bien Tinh Productions, in the spring of 1998, entitled Tiec Nho (Missing). This album would also feature tracks recorded by 3 other contributing fellow artists: Julie, Anh Tu, and Thai Thao. This debut album for Thien Phu sold quite well within the overseas Vietnamese communities worldwide. Part of its success had to do with the heavy rotation of airplay that had been given to several of the tracks Thien Phu had recorded on the album, in particular a cover of a Jacques Brel-penned timeless classic, Ne Me Quitte Pas. Pham Long, a well known radio personality for Little Saigon Radio Broadcasting Network, had taken an instant liking to Thien Phu's version of the song, in which was recorded in both the original lyrics in French, as well as the translated Vietnamese lyrics written by the late legendary Vietnamese composer, Pham Duy. Soon after, other Vietnamese language radio programs would also began giving airplay for Thien Phu's recorded songs from this debut album. The airplay would reach Vietnamese audiences in the 3 major regions with the highest Vietnamese populations of the United States: Orange County in Southern California, San Jose in Northern California, and Houston, Texas, giving Thien Phu a much wider exposure to the Vietnamese music scene. That along with a series of radio interviews and several appearances on Vietnamese language produced television shows to further promote the album greatly enhanced Thien Phu's popularity as a singer. Among other tracks on the album included covers of French popular songs such as Aline, Magic Boulevard, both of which were recorded by Thien Phu, the Edith Piaf signature classic, La Vie En Rose, recorded by Julie Quang in an upbeat, modified new up-tempo arrangement by Sy Dan and Envie de Pleurer recorded by Anh Tu.
As a follow up after his debut album, Bien Tinh Productions had planned a duet album with Thanh Ha for Thien Phu. For a recording artist recently introduced onto the Vietnamese pop music scene such as Thien Phu, to be paired up with another artist of Thanh Ha's caliber at the time would be definitely serve as a career boost. However, due to scheduling conflicts, the project was ultimately cancelled. This was a major setback for Thien Phu. On an interview for VOV Radio on 96.7FM, he had said, "I was really looking forward to working with Thanh Ha. Think about it, a duet album featuring two Amerasian singers together. But I understand that she was under contract with Thuy Nga at the time and couldn't commit to another production label. It would have been a great experience since not only was [Thanh Ha] one of my favorite singers, she was also my friend."
The beginning of the new millennium for Thien Phu was met with a series of tragedies in his personal life. In 2000, Thien Phu experienced the death of his grandmother, Marie Nguyen, to whom he was rather close to. His grandmother had been a well respected businesswoman from Saigon, South Vietnam. She was owner of the famous Au Ma Cabane Cabaret Nightclub in Saigon that featured nightly live entertainment from some of the biggest names among Vietnamese singers. Among the list of regular performers at Au Ma Cabane were Thai Thanh, Thanh Lan, Jo Marcel, Duy Quang, Giao Linh , Ngoc Bich and the late Jeannie Mai, who was also Thien Phu's aunt at one point by marriage. In a sense, it can be said that Thien Phu had come from a showbiz family.
Following the death of his grandmother, Thien Phu was met with yet another blow the following year with the passing of one of his idols, singer Ngoc Lan. But another tragedy would be in store for Thien Phu, less than 2 years after when singer Anh Tu suddenly passed away on December of 2003. Anh Tu had been one of the most influential people in Thien Phu's life, as well as in his career. It was all too much for Thien Phu to take which consequentially prompted his decision to leave the singing business. He then found work as a bartender at a high end sushi restaurant in Newport Beach, California and successfully completed his studies with a bachelor's of arts degree in English at Cal State Long Beach. Although content with his life away from the spotlight as a singer, momentarily Thien Phu would find himself reminiscing of his past as an entertainer. That was when he came to the realization that there was definitely something missing in his life.
After a 7 year hiatus, Thien Phu would make his return to the stage. This came about after running into an old friend and colleague, singer Randy, while attending the funeral of Amerasian singer Luu Quoc Viet during the spring of 2008. After an exchange of phone numbers, Randy telephoned Thien Phu with an invitation to perform at a sold out show for Amerasians in Oklahoma City organized by the Gia Dinh My Viet Foundation. A series of other live shows for Gia Dinh My Viet performing alongside the likes of other Amerasian performers such as Lilian, Van Anh, Ngoc Anh, Hoang Dung and Randy would follow. In the summer of 2009, Thien Phu traveled to Paris, France to fulfill a successful one night engagement for the Vietnamese community there. Once again, he had been caught with the singing buzz.
In 2014, Thien Phu shot a pair of music videos for Viet Star Productions in Seattle, Washington. He is currently working on an upcoming solo studio album.
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