She was born on October 21, 1952 in Saigon, South Vietnam, the fourth eldest in an affluent family of nine children. Her father was the owner and CEO of Vopco, one of South Vietnam's most prolific import/export trading companies prior to the Fall of Saigon. Sher'e Thu Thuy and her siblings were each raised with a privileged upbringing and given a French education. At 15, she began singing professionally with her older brother, Manh Ha, in their band, The Mavericks, nightly at a local venue in Bien Hoa, Vietnam which catered primarily to US military personnel patrons. She and her older brother performed covers of popular American songs at the venue and quickly developed a following within the community of US military personnel stationed in Bien Hoa. She was then known to her audience by the stage name of Sandy.
After a few years as the female lead singer of The Mavericks in South Vietnam, Sher'e Thu Thuy left her native homeland for the United States at the end of 1970 and married an American by the name of James Roy Wycoff shortly thereafter. Putting her music career behind her, she resettled in Southern California and embarked on a new career as an actress for American mainstream television and films. Among her television acting credits include appearances on popular shows such as All My Children, Too Close for Comfort, Highway to Heaven, Divorce Court and China Beach. Sher'e Thu Thuy has also appeared on a number of major Hollywood produced films like A Rumor of War (1980), Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder (1982) and Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987).
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| Sher'e Thu Thuy in the music video It's Only You |
After a 13-year hiatus, in 1983 Sher'e Thu Thuy resumed her music career when she along with her two brothers, Manh Ha and Alan Nguyen, and musician Trung Nghia formed a band in Burbank, California called The Survivors. Other singers recruited as regular performers for The Survivors band included Vy Van and Tuan Dung. The Survivors became quite successful performing mostly at gigs for Vietnamese-American audiences. Sher'e Thu Thuy would go on to perform at major cabarets within the Vietnamese-American community in Orange County, California throughout the 1980s such as Saigon Cabaret, Lang Van - Dem Mau Hong and Ritz. She also toured extensively performing at live shows for overseas Vietnamese communities throughout the United States and Canada sharing the stage with the likes of Khanh Ly, Thanh Thuy and Elvis Phuong. In 1985, Sher'e Thu Thuy formed her own music production label and released her first studio album, Nu Hon Dau (First Kiss), which also featured singers Ngoc Lan and Nhu Mai. In 1987, she became one of the very few overseas Vietnamese artists to have a single record released on vinyl with a song she had co-written with her younger brother, Alan Nguyen, entitled as Gonna Lose My Heart. To her amazement, the single became an international hit making the charts in many European countries where Italo Disco and Euro New Wave were massively popular and also on the charts in countries of East Asia, particularly Hong Kong where it had became a top ten hit. In addition, the single enjoyed heavy rotation and was given tremendous airplay by mainstream celebrity disc jockey, Richard Blade, of the popular Southern California-based radio station, KROQ-106.7 FM. The international success of Gonna Lose My Heart generated a fan base for Sher'e Thu Thuy that spanned all over the globe. Despite the overwhelming anticipation from fans, a music video to her first international hit single had not been produced due to schedule conflicts. Sher'e Thu Thuy followed up the success of Gonna Lose My Heart with another international hit single, It's Only You, in which she again had co-written with her brother, Alan Nguyen. Like her previous international hit single, It's Only You was also released as a record single on vinyl. Recorded versions with Vietnamese lyrics for both of these songs would be featured on Sher'e Thu Thuy's next studio album, Chi Minh Anh (It's Only You), released in 1988. This time around, a music video would be made for It's Only You. While being interviewed on Vietnam Performing Arts Television on channel 18 KSCI-TV in the spring of 1988, she premiered her music video for It's Only You to Vietnamese-American viewer audiences. Among Sher'e Thu Thuy's other popular hit songs include I Feel Your Love, Prisoner of Love, Bring My Heart to Light and I Don't Like You. It should be noted that Sher'e Thu Thuy was the first Vietnamese-American female singer to have written a published hit song in English.
The beginning of the 1990s decade Sher'e Thu Thuy was still very much at the top of her game, but yet she abruptly walked away from the music industry and chose to remain out of public view for the next twenty years. Her videotape, Bien Tinh, which comprised of several of Sher'e Thu Thuy's music videos of her hit songs from the 1980s including It's Only You along with guest performances from singers Y Lan and Phuong Loan was released in 1991. That would mark the last release from TT Productions, her own music label she had formed back in 1985, for the next two decades. No formal announcement of retirement was made by Sher'e Thu Thuy to her fans which resulted in many speculations that circulated in the rumor mills of Vietnamese communities worldwide of her whereabouts. Nobody knew exactly where she had gone or why she had left the music industry, as it seemed like she had simply just vanished from the spotlight without a trace. Then in 2010, Sher'e Thu Thuy resurfaced with the release of Dem Nay, her first studio album in over 20 years which featured Solitaire, a track recorded in French written by her brother, Alan Nguyen. In an interview on 106.3 FM with actress/singer/radio talk show hostess Bang Chau, Sher'e Thu Thuy candidly disclosed that the primary reasons for her departure from the music industry twenty years ago had to do with health and money matters. Although she did not go into much detail with her health matters, she did say that it was something she had dealt with in the past and that she is in good health today. In terms of the frustration she had experienced with financial matters back in the early 1990s, Sher'e Thu Thuy revealed that she, like so many other artists, had not been able to capitalize on the international success of her previous hit songs such as Gonna Lose My Heart and It's Only You due to copyright infringements and pirated duplication of her music that took place in several countries, mainly Hong Kong where her first single had been a top ten hit.
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| Sher'e Thu Thuy at the Whiskey A Go Go in West Hollywood, California, USA (September 18, 2013) |
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WOW! I really enjoyed reading this blog. And I recently visited this artist's website. I was particularly amazed by all her accomplishments. She might even be the most decorated female Vietnamese in her age group, or perhaps of all time. I also believe she might even be a Legend.
ReplyDeleteHello, I was born and raised in Westminster CA. and I remember the first time I heard this recording artist on our local FM radio station. I always believed she was an American singer. That is until I went to meet up with my girlfriend at the mall. It was there at a local record store when my girlfriend bought the Album called, "Gonna lose my heart". And When I questioned who is that singer? She replied, "that's the singer, the one who sings that song you like". Again, I couldn't believe this until she played the song. I must say, I was flabbergasted to know the artist was Vietnamese. At the time, there were no new wave/Euro original recording Vietnamese who had radio airplay. Particularly on Fm radio stations. Shortly thereafter I had also discovered that She had a video on the popular MTV show, which blew me away. Not even Lynda Trang Dai had any music or videos, especially on American TV or Radio. So, after reading your article. I must say, I am proud to know a Vietnamese finally broke the chained/barrier from the typical Vietnamese music. Amazing!
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