Truc Mai

Trúc Mai (1941-    ) is a famous Vietnamese pop singer who had first risen to prominence during the late 1950s as a popular headliner in the cabaret circuit of Saigon.

A native of Saigon, South Vietnam, Truc Mai was raised in a working class family in the district of Thủ Đức.  At the age of 16, she began her professional singing career when she joined an organization which held live shows in support of South Vietnam's military troops and their families called Cục Tâm Lý Chiến.  In 1959, Truc Mai became a singer at the prestigious Văn Cảnh cabaret in Saigon performing nightly alongside other headliners such as Thanh Thúy, Thùy Hương, Thu Hương, Thái Xuân, Hùng Cường and Jo Marcel who was then known as Ngọc Minh.  Shortly after, she was invited to join the lineup of performers headlining nightly at the Hòa Bình cabaret which included Bạch Yến, Túy Phương, Bích Chiêu and Nhật Thiên Lan.  Within a short period of time, Truc Mai would become one of the most popular singers of South Vietnam with a nightly performing route consisting of as many as six different venues around Saigon which included Olympia, Arc-en-Ciel and Đại Nam.  Truc Mai's signature live interpretation of Bambino, a song originally made famous by French pop singer Dalida, in translated Vietnamese lyrics became a favorite with her audience at cabarets and earned her the title as "Nữ Hoàng Mambo", the Queen of the Mambo.  In 1960, she signed with Sóng Nhạc record company as an exclusive recording artist.  Among her most popular signature songs recorded were Con Thuyền Không Bến written by Đặng Thế Phong, Gởi Gió Cho Mây Ngàn Bay written by Đoàn Chuẩn, Đường Xưa Lối Cũ written by Hoàng Thi Thơ and Hàn Mặc Tử written by Nhật Trường.

While at her career peak, Truc Mai got married in 1965 and walked away from the music industry to start a family.  Money saved up from many years as one of the highest paid headliners at major cabarets in Saigon and as a recording artist allowed Truc Mai to take an extensive 7-year career hiatus, during which time she dedicated herself to her family as a housewife and as a mother.  Although she was content in her settled married life, Truc Mai often reminisced of her days performing at cabarets.  Finally, in 1972 she came out of retirement and resurfaced onto South Vietnam's pop music industry with several memorable appearances on Nhat Truong's music variety television show.  For the remainder of years Truc Mai spent living in Saigon, she managed to successfully resume both her careers as a headliner at cabarets and as a recording artist scoring another major hit with the song, Nhà Anh Nhà Em, written by Hà Liên Tử.  She also recorded a solo album for the label, Shotguns, entitled as Tiếng Hát Trúc Mai (1972).

In 1975, Truc Mai and her family left Vietnam to begin their new lives in the United States.  She first resettled in the state of Nebraska.  Nearly a year would pass before Truc Mai would officially resume her music career.  During the Tết (Vietnamese Luna New Year) season of 1976, she accepted a personal invitation from veteran Vietnamese actress/singer Túy Hồng to perform at a live show in Washington, D.C. alongside Xuân Phát, Nhật Minh and La Thoại Tân.  Her debut live performance in the United States was warmly embraced by the audience.  Truc Mai then went onto performing for live shows for Vietnamese communities in other major cities in the United States including Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans and Chicago.  In 1982, she and her family relocated to San Jose, California.  Throughout the 1980s, Truc Mai collaborated as a recording artist with various overseas Vietnamese music production labels such as Thanh Lan, Truong Hai, Giang Ngoc and Da Lan.  In 1993, Truc Mai embarked on a successful European concert tour with fellow singers Minh Hiếu, Hoàng Liêm and burlesque performer Kim Qui.  For a number of years in the 1990s, she owned and operated Truc Mai Nightclub in San Jose.  On video, Truc Mai has appeared on popular live shows produced by Truong Thanh, Thuy Nga on volume 78 of Paris By Night in a medley duet performance with singer Phương Hồng Quế in 2005 and Asia Entertainment on volume 50 in a duet performance with singer Y Phương in 2006, volume 52 in a medley ensemble with singers Tuấn Vũ and Kim Loan also in 2006, volume 73 in a medley duet performance with singer Thanh Thúy in 2013 and volume 74 in the following year in a solo performance of one of her signature songs, Nửa Đêm Ngoài Phố written by Trúc Phương.  Now in her seventies, Truc Mai continues to perform for Vietnamese audiences all over the world.