Phi Nhung

Phi Nhung (1972-2021) was one of the most successful Vietnamese female singers during the past three decades starting in the 1990s and well into the 2010s. 

Born on April 10, 1972 in Pleiku, South Vietnam, Phi Nhung was a child of war whose father was an American soldier stationed there during the Vietnam War and whose mother was a local Vietnamese woman. Her childhood was filled with many challenges and struggles which had only worsened after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 as she had been brought up in a single parent household with five younger half-siblings.  With her mother's unexpected passing, Phi Nhung was left as an orphan at age 11 and being the eldest was given the tremendous responsibility of having to care for her five younger siblings.  For the years to come, Phi Nhung relied on what little money she was able to earn through odd jobs working as a domestic help and a little bit of aide from an adoptive uncle.  

In 1989, Phi Nhung resettled to the United States in Tampa, Florida under the Amerasian Homecoming Act.  Four years later, she would relocate to Orange County, California upon being discovered by singer Trizzie Phuong Trinh who would help introduce Phi Nhung to the Vietnamese music production label, Thuy Anh, based in Southern California that would produce her earliest professional recordings.  

From her first music video appearance on Hollywood Night Volume 15 produced by May Productions, Phi Nhung was able to win the hearts of many viewers with her heart-wrenching vocals in a duet song with Thai Chau, Song Que 1.  Under the guidance of veteran singer, Huong Lan, Phi Nhung was given the encouragement to further her career.  Soon after, Phi Nhung began recording and making music videos for numerous other music production labels such as Tinh Productions, Bien Tinh Productions, Van Son Entertainment, Asia Productions and Thuy Nga Paris, where she has often been paired up on duets with male vocalist Manh Quynh on the Paris By Night live show series.  In 1998, Phi Nhung became the Vietnamese singer with the most released studio albums.  By then, her career and immense popularity had taken her all over the world performing at live concerts for overseas Vietnamese audiences throughout Europe including Russia, Australia, Canada, Japan and all across the United States.  Phi Nhung had recorded many duets with various other artists including Giao Linh, Tuan Vu, Quang Le, Che Linh, Thanh Tuyen, Duy Truong, Truong Vu, Manh Dinh, Dan Truong and Kim Tu Long.   

In addition to her successful career as a professional singer of traditional Vietnamese popular music, Phi Nhung had also enjoyed success as an actress and performer of Southern Vietnamese folk opera known as "cai luong".  She acted in many widely received "cai luong" productions remaking such classics as Nua Doi Huong Phan, Song Dai, Hai Au Phi Xu, Tam Long Cua Bien and Lan va Diep.  Phi Nhung's other acting credits include comedy skits such as Vo Thang Dau, Ngao So Oc Hen and Lam Dau Dat Khach and supporting roles in two comedy movies starring Hoai Linh, Hello Co 3 (2012), which also featured Tan Beo and Hieu Hien, and Nha Co 5 Nang Tien (2013), which also featured Viet Huong, Ngan Khanh, Miu Le and Chi Tai.  Both films went on to become major commercial blockbusters in the cinema of Vietnam.

In 2005, Phi Nhung signed a lucrative recording contract with Rang Dong Entertainment, a major music production label based in Ho Chi Minh City.  For the next several years, Phi Nhung would be an exclusive recording artist on all audio recordings for the label.  However, not wanting to neglect her huge fanbase among overseas Vietnamese audiences, Phi Nhung continued to make frequent appeances on music videos produced by various overseas Vietnamese studios such as Làng Văn, Thuy Nga Paris and Asia Entertainment.  Her extraordinary success and professional accomplishments had then allowed her to pursue her lifelong dream of building an orphanage near her hometown in Vietnam.  In January of 2009, after years of planning costing over 800 million VND, much of which had come from her own fiinancial contributions, her dream had finally come true with the completion of Phi Nhung – Vòng Tay Dưỡng Tử, an orphanage located within the Pháp Lạc Buddhist Temple in the provincial town of Bình Phước.  Since its inception, the orphanage has provided a home to over 40 orphans whom all have looked onto Phi Nhung as their adoptive mother.  She also founded the Phi Nhung Charitable Fund, a non-profit organization which provides aide to the less fortunate living in the same region in Vietnam.   

On August 26, 2021, Phi Nhung was hospitalized after she had fallen ill to Covid-19.   She died exactly one month later on September 26, 2021 at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.  Phi Nhung is survived by her daughter, Wendy Pham, a registered nurse residing in the United States.  

Link(s):

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